


Left at the Altar

by MLRD4ever



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Dominant Jean Kirstein, Dominant Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Eren Is a Little Shit, Eren Yeager Is a Ray of Sunshine, Eren Yeager Sees The Ocean, Exhibitionism, First Dates, Good Parent Grisha Yeager, Good Uncle Kenny Ackerman, Jean Kirstein Being An Asshole, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Is a Sweetheart, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) is Whipped, M/M, Mikasa Ackerman & Eren Yeager Are Siblings, Minor Jean Kirstein/Eren Yeager, Minor Marco Bott/Jean Kirstein, Morning Kisses, Movie Night, Mutual Pining, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Possessive Eren Yeager, Possessive Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Protective Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Public Blow Jobs, Public Hand Jobs, Public Masturbation, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Gestures, Slow Burn, Slow Dancing, Submissive Eren Yeager, Sugar Daddy Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Teasing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-01-22 17:39:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 48,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12487224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MLRD4ever/pseuds/MLRD4ever
Summary: When Eren's fiance leaves him at the alter, the brunette vows to never love again. However, when someone saves him from getting hit by a car, Eren might just change his mind.UNDER MAJOR EDITING RIGHT NOW :)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If any of you have wattpad, then you might recognize this work from my wattpad account. I am no longer continuing it there. If you enjoy it or wanna leave constructive criticism, please leave comments down below. I literally thrive off your comments and reading them always makes my day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi to the rescue.

He should have been incredibly happy, with this being his wedding day and all, however Eren was nothing but a bundle of uncomfortable nerves. He nervously shifted from foot to foot at the alter, every moment that ticked by feeling like a thousand as he continuously glanced around the chapel. He let out a cough and tugged at the collar of his tuxedo, almost positive that the already stiff fabric was tightening around his neck as time passed. He weakly smiled as Armin leaned forward to give his arm a reassuring squeeze, but it was a fake smile and they both knew that. Eren's fiancé was now twenty minutes late to their wedding and there was no sign that he was planning on showing up anytime soon. He knew that his relationship with Jean wasn't anywhere close to being perfect, but Eren had loved him and had been looking forward to marrying him. From where Eren was standing at the alter, he could see several guests in the audience giving him sympathetic looks, one of those people being Jean's mother, and that was the final straw for him; he simply gave up hope that his fiancé was ever going to show up and tossed his flower bouquet down, trying to tune out everyone's whispers as he ran down the aisle and back to his dressing room, wishing he could simply die right there in the chapel to avoid the misery he was now feeling.

"Eren, wait!!" Mikasa stood and followed Eren out, furious that Jean would ever think about standing precious brother up and felt her heart break when she found the brunette back in his dressing room, kneeling on the floor and crying his eyes out. She crouched down next to him, as best as she could in a dress, and pulled Eren into a tight hug, hoping she could ease those tears, even if it was only by a little. "Oh Eren. I'm so sorry. I didn't think Jean could be so heartless."

"How c-could he do this to me? He said he loved m-me....."

"Well, he doesn't deserve someone like you. You'll find someone better."

"Whatever. Just take me home."

"Of course."

During the trip home, Eren was silent aside from a couple of sniffles and it bothered Mikasa to see her brother feeling like this, especially knowing this one situation she couldn't fix. As soon as they were home and through the front door, Eren ran straight to his bedroom and slammed the door shut. Once he was stripped down to his boxers, he buried himself under the covers, comfortably cocooned in the safety of his bed, so he could cry his heart out in peace.

~

Eren let out a disheartened sigh and turned his music up to an almost deafening level, as he continued wandering down the near empty sidewalk. He didn't really have any idea where he was going and honestly didn't really care where he finally ended up with. He had desperately needed some air, his small apartment feeling too suffocating, and decided he would go for a walk, desperately hoping that it would clear his anxious and heartbroken mind.

As he was approaching an busy intersection and the oncoming traffic, a terrible plan began forming in his mind, a way to finally out am end to all his recent pain. He took a deep breath to calm himself, as well as work up his courage, and mentally said his goodbyes to everyone as he stepped out into the street, hoping that getting hit by the oncoming black pickup wouldn't hurt for too long. 

As he was slowly "crossing" the street, he could see the pickup rapidly approaching and could faintly hear them honking at him, probably hoping that he'd move so they wouldn't have to stop. Eren let out a choked gasp as someone suddenly yanked him back by the hood of his jacket, away from a sudden, vicious death. A part of Eren was disappointed that someone actually cared enough to stop him and he yanked his earbuds out, angrily whirling around to glare at his rescuer, only to find the short raven haired man that had saved him returning the same glare.

"You trying to end your miserable life, brat?"

Eren couldn't deny it when that was exactly what he'd been trying to do, so he merely shrugged in response and looked down at the ground, hoping to avoid this entire depressing conversation. "Maybe. What's it to you?"

Levi was not at all expecting that answer and, immediately caught off guard, he gave the brunette a worried look, wondering what could have possibly happened to the poor boy to make him want to commit suicide. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Come on." Without even waiting for an answer or a name, he grabbed Eren's wrist and began pulling him down the street, where he knew a plaza of nice restaurants were located.

They ended up at a small homey café, where the waitress seated them in a quiet booth and handed them menus, only a couple seconds after their arrival. Eren still wasn't sure what was going on, not quite understanding why this man had saved him and brought him to a café

"Order whatever the hell you want. Lunch is on me."

"What, no. I can't let you do that. I don't even know your name."

"Levi Ackerman. Now, what do you want for lunch?"

Eren looked over the menu a couple of times, his mouth watering and stomach growling at the thought of a nice medium rare steak. "Well, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd maybe like a steak. And a soda please. And my name is Eren, by the way."

When the waitress returned several minutes later, Levi ordered a steak and soda for Eren, and a cup of tea for himself, having already eaten lunch ten minutes before he had stumbled upon Eren trying to end his life. "So, brat, you wanna tell me why you're so desperate to get run over?"

"Personal problems."

"And they're that bad?"

"They are to me, okay?" He was pissed that Levi would take his problems so lightly, considering that man didn't even know a thing about him.

"Alright, alright. Don't get so defensive." Levi could see a frown beginning to form on the brunette's face and, not wanting to rile him up further, let out a defeated sigh. "Look, brat. Whatever your problems are, they can't be worth it. You shouldn't be so reckless, okay?"

"Why do you even care?"

"My mother killed herself when I was ten, simply because she couldn't handle being broke and having a kid to raise."

A look of pity and despair flashed across Eren's face, an expression that always irritated Levi to no end, and he lowered his head, feeling horrible that he had tried to end his own life over something just as trivial. "Wow, I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't be. The past is the past and you can't change it. You can only focus on the future. And that's what you need do." As their conversation came to an end, the waitress finally returned with their drinks and Eren's food. The brunette hungrily dug in and talked with Levi about the more pleasant things in their lives.

Once they had finished, Levi paid the bill just as he said he would, then lead Eren back outside the small cafe, where pulled the brunette in for a hug, knowing Eren probably needed it. He knew his guess has been right when he pulled away to find Eren smiling down at him, looking much happier than when they'd first met. "Take care of yourself, brat."

~

"You seem in a better mood today." Mikasa looked up from where she had been dusting, something she often stopped by to do for the lazy brunette, and immediately noticed the joyful smile on her brother's face when he walked through the front door.

"Hell yeah, I am. Give me a minute and I'll tell you about it." He went to his room and shrugged his jacket off, glancing down as a small white card fell out of the pocket and fluttered to the floor. He bent down and picked it up to see some words scrawled across it in an unfamiliar loopy handwriting.

_868-263-8411  
Let's get lunch again soon, brat _

"He....gave me his number?" Eren didn't know how to feel about it, having just gotten out a relationship that had taken such a terrible downward spiral. He definitely wanted to have lunch with Levi again, but this felt like the start of another relationship and he wasn't sure he was ready for that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know that it takes less time and energy to close out this site, then it does to leave a rude comment? Shocking, right? You learn something new everyday.

It had been nearly an entire week since his spontaneous date with Levi and Eren had finally decided that it was time to go to the supermarket, considering his fridge and pantry were practically empty of any food. Practically finished with his shopping and finishing up at the shelf in front of him, he came to a decision and grabbed several cups of sriracha chicken ramen, instead the picante chicken, tossing them into his basket. Just as he turned around, Jean, of all people, turned into the same aisle and Eren's eyes widened as they noticed each other. 

Neither of them moved for several seconds, both motionless as statues, as they made awkward eye contact with each other and just as Eren had finally worked up the courage to open his mouth, Jean turned right back around and hurriedly began walking away, acting like he hadn't even spotted the brunette to begin with.

That was all it took to send Eren's self esteem plummeting to rock bottom and he felt his heart shatter all over again, realizing just how little he actually meant to his ex. He dejectedly took his basket of food to the self checkout to pay for everything, moving as quickly as he could, so he could go home and wallow in self-pity for the rest of the day.

Once he had stumbled back through the door of his apartment, Eren carelessly tossed his groceries into his fridge and pantry, before shuffling off to his room. He turned on the TV, hoping something good would be playing, but all that was on was some crappy soap opera. Considering Eren was already living a soap opera, he reckoned he didn't need anymore drama in his life and simply turned it back off. 

Without anything to distract him, he suddenly felt extremely lonely and looked through the contacts in his phone, just wanting someone who would listen to him and tell him everything would be fine. He eventually found one that gave him hope and dialled it, listened as it began shrilly ringing. A familiar voice called out on the other end that had Eren's heart in knots and he found that he was unable to form any coherent thoughts.p>

"Hello......hellooo, who the fuck is this?"

Eren exhaled a shaky breath as that silky voice called out in utter confusion once more, something that he found to be incredibly cute, and finally managed to stutter a greeting. "H-hey, Levi. It's me.....Eren."

"Oh, hi. I was wondering when you'd finally get some balls and call me. Took you long enough." 

Eren was amazed that someone could be so snarky and still sound ridiculously sexy, something he was sure only the raven and no one else could actually pull off. "Yeah, well I was.....busy."

"Let me take a guess. Your problems again?"

The memory of Jean avoiding him at the grocer's earlier at the grocer's played through Eren's mind once more and he let out a depressed sigh as he was reminded again of just how unwanted he apparently was. 

"Brat, what's wrong?"

"N-nothing." 

_He wasn't wanted._

"Eren......" Even without knowing knowing the him very well, Levi knew that "fine" never really meant fine and he was immediately concerned about Eren's mood, which only further worsened after the next sentence from the brunette's mouth.

"Levi, I've got to go. I'm sorry. Goodbye." 

_He wasn't loved._

"No, don't hang up-......" 

The line went silent as Eren ended the call and tossed his phone across the room, regretting having made that call, as it had only worsened his mood. He ended up wandering into the bathroom for God knows what and found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror, his hate for himself intensifying the longer he looked. He couldn't understand why things always turned out so terribly for him, especially given the fact that he was such a kindhearted person. Apparently, he was too nice and his punishment fot that was the universe constantly fucking his life up. 

Eren let out a furious scream as he thought of everything that had ever gone wrong in his life and slammed his fist into the mirror, wanting to rid himself of the horrid reflection. The glass immediately shattered under the pressure of the violent strike and sliced cuts into Eren's hands as it rained down on the floor. His blood made a spattered crimson mess all over the nice white tiles, but he continued to repeatedly strike the glass, until his fists had gone numb and he could no longer feel the pain in his hands. 

Much too soon for his liking, his anger had dissipated and he found himself down on the floor, panting heavily from his exertion. His now slightly cracked phone, which had conveniently landed quite close to the bathroom, suddenly began ringing and startled him out of his self-deprecating stupor. He hesitantly it up from the floor wincing at the now searing pain in his knuckles, and immediately recognized Levi's number, having a quick internal debate with himself before hitting the answer button. 

"Eren. Eren, are you there? Please answer me....." The raven sounded distraught over him but Eren couldn't bring himself to say anything, much too disappointed in himself and his recent fit of anger to say anything. He knew if he were to open his mouth, he would sound fragile and powerless, which would instantly clue Levi in that he has been crying like a child. "Please talk to me. Where are you? EREN.....listen, if you aren't going to talk to me, then at least send me your address." 

As Eren began typing out the address of his apartment, he could hear Levi talking to another man, though he was only able to make out a word or two of their conversation before the line suddenly went silent. It was much too quiet for Eren's comfort and he began to worry that the call had possibly been cut off or ended completely, not that it would have been the first time something like that would have happened to him, however Levi's oddly comforting voice rang out over the line once more. 

"Eren. I'm going to hang up, but I'll be over there in a few minutes, okay?" 

~ 

Eren wasn't sure how long he had been laying on the floor, but there was the alarming sound of glass shattering from the front of his apartment, then footsteps hurrying down the hall towards his bedroom. Levi appeared in the doorway, not moments later, looking absolutely frantic as he knelt down next to him. "Eren? Oh my god, what the hell happened to your hands?" 

Eren was much too mentally exhausted to answer and just shook his head, happy when the subject was dropped as the raven scooped him up and carried him into the bathroom, which was where his dreadful fit had taken place. 

Levi's eyes widened in shock as he saw the wrecked mirror and the remains of it on the floor, instantly understood what had happened, as he glanced back down at the brunette's hands. "Eren, why? What prompted you to do this?" 

"I told you I have problems. Low self esteem, anger issues, anxiety......" 

"Shhh, say no more. I'll take care of you." Levi was careful as he worked on gently removing the remaining glass from Eren's skin, proceeding to bandage the brunette up afterwards. 

"Levi......I-....." Eren's voice cracked awkwardly in a failed attempt to explain everything and he cursed himself for being so weak, especially in front of someone who could have been a potential future boyfriend, though the chances they'd still be together after this entire incident were probably dwindling. "I'm sorry I'm such a bother." 

"You're not a bother, Eren." 

"Yes, I am. Because of me, you probably had to leave work and come deal with this. I'm sorry I'm so fucked up." 

"EREN, SHUT UP!! Stop self-deprecating. Everyone has problems but that doesn't mean you're fucked up." 

"I'm sorry." 

"And stop apologizing. Come on, let's go." Once he had helped Eren down from the countertop, he lead the way through the brunette's now glass-free room and down the hallway that lead to the front door. 

"Wait, where are we going?" 

"I am taking you out for lunch." 

Eren was both incredibly confused and overjoyed, not having expected that Levi would want to take him out on again after meeting so terribly again, but not complaining about the spontaneous lunch date. "But don't you have work?" 

"No, I took the rest of the day off to deal with this." 

As they neared his front door, Eren's attention was drawn to one of the windows, which had been smashed in and covered the floor with shards of broken glass. "What the fuck? Did you do that?" 

"Yeah, but don't worry your pretty little head over it. I'll get it fixed for you." 

~ 

"So you just filled his dorm room with balloons?" 

Eren nodded and took another bite of his steak. Levi had taken them to the same restaurant as last time, much to the brunette's joy. They had began talking again and had somehow managed to get onto the topic of Eren's college days, which Levi seemed to find immensely entertaining. "He never even had a clue. Poor Armin just opened the door and the balloons came rolling out. He's a pretty small guy, too, so he was pretty much buried under them." 

"And what now? Are you still in school?" 

"Thank god, no. I'm just job searching right now." 

"I see." Once their meals were finished and the bill was paid for, they went back to the raven's car. "Hey, Eren. Listen, if you are ever feeling upset, just call me, okay? You can talk to me about what's bothering you. I just don't want you to do something rash, like trying to commit suicide." 

"I'm sorry." 

"Don't be. Alright? Now, on Saturday night, be ready by seven. I'm taking you out for dinner." 

Eren's cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment and he gave the raven a playful shove, trying to hide the fact that he was so flustered. "Levi, what's with the sudden date?" 

"You're an interesting brat and I'd like to see you more." 

That statement was all Eren could think about on the drive home, so the trip was relatively silent. When they reached the brunette's apartment, Eren leaned over and shyly kissed the Levi's cheek, before hopping out of the car. "Thank you for everything today, Levi. It meant a lot." 

"No problem, brat. Take care of yourself, okay?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi and Eren's romantic dinner date and the morning after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't like the way I had originally written this on wattpad, so I changed it up quite a bit and added in a more.

When Saturday rolled around, Eren invited Mikasa and Armin over to his apartment to help him prep for his date. They were extremely concerned when they saw his bandaged hands, but knew better than to pester him about what had happened. Not that Eren would have even told them, had they asked.

While Armin was looking over various outfit options, Mikasa coached Eren through possible conversation ideas for his and Levi's dinner date. 

Everything was going smoothly and as it got closer to seven, Eren showered and dressed in the outfit Armin had finally decided on. It was merely black skinny jeans and a nice sweater, not too casual but not too formal. 

While Eren was attempting to smooth down his messy hair, the doorbell rang and he rushed out to open the door before either of his friends could do it and embarrass him. Levi was standing there, dressed in casual clothes for once, with a bouquet of roses which he promptly handed to Eren.

"These are for you, brat."

"Aww, thank you." He was a little confused as to why Levi was staring over his shoulder, until he remembered that his friends were over. He turned around to find them peering out of his bedroom. However they ducked back inside, embarrassed to have been caught staring. "Umm....that was just Armin and Mikasa. Here, you can come in, Levi. I just gotta put these in water real quick."

It took a couple of minutes for him to find something tall enough to put the flowers in but he finally got them taken care of and came back out of the kitchen to find his two friends sitting in the living room, talking to Levi about him, of course.

Levi's lips curled into a smile as soon as Eren walked into the room and he stood up, offering a hand out to the brunette. "Shall we be on our way, cutie?"

Eren let out soft laugh at the corny line and took Levi's hand, trying to keep himself from blushing in front of his two best friends. The last thing he needed was for them to notice it and say something that might get him even more flustered. "We shall indeed." 

"Have fun, Eren."

"Use protection."

Eren couldn't help but blush that time and quickly dragged Levi out the front door before anymore embarrassing stuff could be said to them. He was amazed at the shiny black Audi r8 parked at the curb. He knew Levi was living well in the money department, but the realization that Levi could afford such a high maintenance supercar made Eren's jaw drop. As they approached the gorgeous car, Levi made sure to open the car door and help Eren in, just like the gentleman he was.

During the drive, Levi never said a word to Eren about where they were going or what was planned, but instead chose to surprise the brunette by taking them to a nice French restaurant that Eren hadn't even known existed. 

They were seated near the back, at a table lit by candles and covered by a silk tablecloth. As Eren looked over the menu, he could feel himself getting anxious. The restaurant was incredibly fancy and everything on the menu was way out of his price range.

Levi immediately picked up on Eren's discomfort and briefly wondered if it was something he did. However, the way the brunette was nibbling his bottom lip as he perused the menu suggested something else was the matter. "Eren, what's wrong? You look upset."

"N-nothing. Its just....everything here is so pricey."

"Don't worry yourself over it. I'm paying, so you just get whatever sounds good."

With that having been said, Eren had a _much_ easier time deciding on what to eat. By the time the waiter came back, they were both ready to order. Eren decided on the grilled swordfish, while Levi order the herb roasted chicken.

After their romantic and expensive fine dining, they leisurely strolled back to Levi's car. And Eren thought that that was going to be the end of their date, but Levi began driving farther away from the brunette's apartment, leaving him to wonder where they were going next.

As the moon was rising and the first stars began appearing, Levi parked the Audit the a curb and helped Eren out, leading him through a nice wrought iron gate and into an even nicer park. They finally reached a small pavilion, where soft lights were strung around the rafters and slow music played from speakers, creating a dreamy atmosphere for couples to dance to. It was quite a popular event, for there was a large number of couples dancing across the wooden floors.

Levi stopped at the edge of the groups of dancing pairs and held his hand out to Eren, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Eren Jaeger, may I have this dance?" 

Eren could have sworn his face turned a hundred different shades of red, but he took Levi's hand without hesitation and nodded. "I'd be absolutely honored."

Levi gripped Eren's hand a little tighter and carefully rested his other hand against the brunette's waist, tugging him closer. He lead Eren between the other dancing couples, until they were somewhere in the middle and they began to slowly waltz to the melody filling the air. "So what do you think?"

"Levi....this is the most amazing night of my life!!! I've never slow danced with anyone before. I really love it."

Levi gently twirled him around in a half arc, before pulling him close again, wrapping both arms firmly around the brunette's waist. "I'm glad you like it. I was hoping you would."

Before they knew it, the song had come to a soft end and Levi, believing this was the most perfect opportunity, leaned up and gently pressed his lips against Eren's for a sweet, slow kiss.

~

Eren entered his apartment and gently shut the door, pressing his fingers against his lips. He could still feel where Levi's lips had touched his and he hoped the feeling would never fade. That kiss had been fucking magical.

"Eren?" It seemed Mikasa was still here, waiting for him to return. However, as Eren entered his living room, he was disappointed to find that Armin had gone home.

"How was your date?"

"Wow. Just wow. It was absolutely fucking incredible, Mikasa. He took me out to this super fancy restaurant, paid for my meal, and took me dancing under the stars."

"Damn, that does sound incredible. I'm glad you had a good time. Are you gonna see him again?"

Eren knew he would be going on more dates with the raven in the future, probably tons more, and didn't even hesitate before answering her. "Definitely."

~

The next morning, Eren was woken by a chime from his phone. He unplugged it from the charger and opened it to checked his phone to see a new text from Levi.

**L: Good morning, brat.**

Included with the message was a selfie of Levi, who looked like he had just woken up. That dark hair was mussed up and there was a sleepy smile on his pale face. To put it simply, he looked hot as fuck. Eren made sure to save the picture to his phone, before responding with the text.

**E: H O T  
E: I wanna lick your dicc**

****

**L: maybe on our next date.**

**L: Have a good day, brat.  
L: I'll text you later.**

Eren finally got out of his bed and headed to the bathroom so he could take a long, hot shower. Half an hour later, as he was looking for clean clothes to put in place of his towel, he noticed his phone sitting on the bedside table and a wicked idea formed in his mind.

~ 

Levi was sitting at his desk, reading over the reports Erwin had left for him, when his phone vibrated several times. He pulled it out of his pocket and quickly typed his pin in, almost choking when he saw what Eren had sent him. 

The brunette had sent him several selfies, though several of them were just a slight camera tilt away from being dick pics. A short message from the brunette came through a few moments later and it left the raven smirking.

**E: have a good day at work :3**

 **L: Oh, I will now.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And before I forget, Happy Halloween everyone!!! 
> 
> If you are going trick or treating, partying, or even just staying home, stay safe and have a good Halloween. 
> 
> Also, trick or treaters, don't eat or accept anything that isn't packaged or is opened from anyone you don't know.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi and Eren have a movie night and Eren comes to terms with his and Levi's relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, I'm not creative enough to think up good chapter names so I'll just be using numbers.  
> 10/10 creativeness, right? xD

Eren had spent the rest of that morning just laying around his apartment and, as it got later in the evening, he had finally settled down to watch a movie. He put the first Lion King in and had gotten about halfway through it when his doorbell rang. He skipped over to the door and opened it, letting out a shriek when someone suddenly grabbed him.

"Hello, Mr Jaeger. I've come for your soul." 

Once Eren heard that familiar deep voice, he stopped panicking and shoved the raven away from him so he could pout where Levi would be able to see it. "Levi!! You scared me, you big meanie."

Levi's eyebrows raised in amusement and he let out a soft snicker, before holding up a big white bag with Chinese lettering. "Well, don't feel too bad. I brought you dinner." 

"Awww, Levi!! You didn't have to."

"Well then, if that's how you feel." Levi turned his back to Eren and the door as if he were planning to just walk away. 

"No, what the fuck? Come in."  He couldn't down om himself from laughing as he pulled Levi inside. They both headed back into the living room and over to the couch.

Levi set the paper bag down the coffee table and opened it, pulling out a small container of coconut shrimp that had the brunette grinning in seconds. 

"How the fuck did you know?" Eren was both immensely surprised and delighted that Levi knew his favorite food and was thoughtful enough to bring some over.

"Your sister told me."

"Of course she did." That was definitely something Mikasa would do, but Eren was quite grateful for it. He took the container from Levi and started playing the movie once more, curling up against Levi as soon as the raven got comfortable on the couch. 

Eren finished his food before the movie had ended and somehow found himself comfortably curled up in Levi's lap, the sound of Mufasa's voice beginning to lull him to sleep.

Levi didn't mind one bit that his date was falling asleep, against him no less, and wrapped his arms tighter around Eren's waist as the brunette's head tipped forward against his shoulder. 

~

The smell of food and coffee was what Eren awoke to the next morning and, for a moment, he thought that he was still dreaming. He finally got out of bed and shuffled into his apartment's kitchen to find Levi making scrambled eggs. 

"Morning brat."

"Levi, you......you're still here?" He remembered watching the rest of, well most of, the Lion King with Levi, but thought that the raven would have left once he had fallen asleep. He had never even dreamed that Levi would put him to bed, clean up their dinner mess, then stay the night.

"Of course I stayed. You fell asleep last night, so I carried you to bed then cleaned up out here. Oh, I hope you don't mind but I slept in your bed with you."

Eren cheeks flushed a light shade of pink as he recalled being curled up in Levi's embrace during the night and how intimate it had been. His flushed face grew even darker, reaching all the way to the tips of his ears, when the raven turned around, looking extremely sexy in a tight black apron that Eren didn't even remember buying.

"Take a seat. I made breakfast for us." He carried to plates full of eggs and toast over to the table and returned to the counter to bring back two full cups of coffee.

~

After spending the morning together, Levi had finally left to go home so he could get ready for work and it was around noon that Eren began questioning his relationship with Levi. His mind kept telling him that he wasn't good enough for the raven and he started to wonder what Levi had even seen in him to begin with. Had Levi just felt bad and began dating him out of pity??? That seemed like a pretty real possibility and it worried Eren that the raven might get bored soon and leave.

His phone suddenly chimed, startling Eren out of his thoughts, and the brunette checked it to see there was a message from the man of his current thoughts. It wasn't that surprising considering how often Levi would send him sweet little messages, but Eren was anxious to see what the raven sent this time.

**L: Do you wanna see a movie with me this weekend, cutie?**

Eren reread the message and panicked as he realized just how close he and Levi were starting to become. They had either gone on a date or had dinner together almost every night that week. It was almost exactly like his old relationship with his ex, Jean.

**E: fuck, I'm sorry. I can't.**

Without even waiting for a response, Eren hurried to his room and began throwing some clean clothes into the first overnight bag he could find. He then snatched his phone up from the couch, grabbed his keys from the shelf by the front door, and ran outside to his car. 

He didn't know where he was planning to go, only that he need to put some distance between himself and Trost. He ended up driving to the next city over, only a couples miles from his own apartment, and found himself parked out front of his parents house. After grabbing his bag, he walked up the small concrete steps and onto the front porch. He only had to knock on the door once and smiled as his mother opened it, a big smile forming on her own face when she saw her son.

"Eren, sweetie. Why didn't you call ahead? I would have made lunch."

"I just.....I don't know." As he walked into the living room and dropped his bag on the couch, his phone chimed a second time and then a third, catching the attention of his mother.

"Who's messaging you, dear?"

"A guy." 

Carla's eyebrows raised and she came to sit next to the brunette on the couch, her gaze never leaving Eren's. "Is this _the_ guy? The one Mikasa told me about?"

Eren glanced at his phone and quickly read the new messages that Levi had sent him.

 **L: Is everything alright?  
L: Eren? Eren, what's wrong?**

"Yeah, it's him." Eren collapsed back against the couch cushions and anxiously tried to think of a suitable response, other than 'I panicked over our relationship and ran away.'

E: nothing, I'm fine

He ended up sending a shitty reassurance that didn't even fool him, so he figured there was no way it would fool Levi. His fears were confirmed seconds later when his phone chimed with the arrival of another message. The raven had immediately picked up on his fake response.

**L: Bullshit.  
L: You know you can tell me, right?**

Eren let out harsh sigh and dropped his phone on the arm of the couch, contemplating how he should respond. He didn't want to dissuade or scare Levi away with his doubt's and anxiety, but he _desperately_ wanted to confide in the raven. Carla gently wrapped an arm around Eren's shoulders and pulled him into a comforting embrace. She knew how hard this was for Eren, dealing with another serious relationship so soon after his first one failed, but she wanted this to work out for him. "Baby, what's the matter?" "I don't know what to do, mum. I really _really_ like him.....but I'm scared."

"Scared of what, honey?"

Eren hesitated for a moment, worried that she might laugh at his next words, but knew she'd support him no matter what he said. "I'm afraid of falling in love just to be dumped again."

"Oh, darling. I know its terrifying to put your trust in someone again, and so soon, but enjoy yourself. He seems to really care about you, Eren."

Eren's phone began ringing, startling them and causing them both to jump at the shrill sound. Eren figured it was Levi and took a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for whatever the raven had to say. He had barely hit the talk button and raised the phone to his ear, when Levi's voice came through, sounding extremely worried.

"Eren, are okay? Is something wrong? Do you need me to come over again? Eren?"

The raven's concerned tone made Eren smile and he gave his staring mother a nod, which made her grin in return. "I'm alright, Levi. I just panicked over something, but everything's fine now. Oh, and about that movie this weekend......I'd love to go with you."

"Okay. Geez, don't scare me like that, brat. I thought something serious had happened. Look, I've got to go, but I'll see you tonight."

"Actually, I'm at my parents house right now, but don't worry. I'll be back before the weekend. I'll see you then, okay?"

"Alright. Stay safe. I'll see you soon, Eren."


	5. Chapter 5

Eren spent that entire weekend resting about and catching up with his parents, but when Monday morning rolled around, he took his belongings and finally made the drive back to his apartment in Trost. He got back late in the afternoon and entered his apartment to find Levi relaxing in the living room, apparently waiting for him to return.

"Levi.....what are you doing here?" Eren warily crossed the room, which he noticed looked much nicer than when he had left, and dropped down next to Levi on the sofa.

"Your sister was kind enough to let in me this morning, so could wait. But your apartment was a little too messy for me, no offense, so I cleaned it up. But there _is_ something I needed to talk to you about."

Eren could have sworn he felt his heart nervously skip a few beats when he heard those words, as those words were usually a relationship ender. His guess was that Levi was planning to dump him before things got too serious and then go back to the way his own life had been.

"Hey, are you alright? You're shaking." Levi had noticed the sudden change in Eren's demeanor and, not completely understanding what had spooked him so badly, he scooted closer so he could wrap his arms around the trembling brunette's slim waist.

"I know what this is about, Levi. If you're gonna break up with me, just get it over with. Fucking do it and leave already." Eren couldn't even stop his voice from shaking, let alone his body, and he absolutely hated that he looked as weak as he was currently feeling.

Levi's sharp grey eyes narrowed in confusion at Eren's nonsense idea that they were through, especially when he'd been planning something of the opposite. "Break up? I'm not gonna break up with you."

"W-wait, you're not?"

"Of course not. I really enjoy spending time with you and was wondering if you wanted to start dating exclusively.....as in boyfriends, you know?" His lips curled into a pleased grin as the brunette tackled him back against the couch cushions and he eagerly wrapped his arms around Eren's waist, returning the tight hug. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Oh, Levi. Yes, I'd love that." Eren gasped as the raven suddenly, and without warning, switched their positions, easily overpowering him and straddling his hips. A dark blush crept across his cheeks as the raven leaned even closer to him and he let his eyes flutter shut as soft lips gently pressed against his own. Their kiss may have only lasted a few seconds, but to Eren it seemed like an eternity, and when they finally separated from each other, he was overwhelmed by the fierce affection Levi had for him.

~

Before he knew it, the following afternoon came and Levi drove them to the movies just as he had promised several days before. They held hands as they stood in the snack line and when they reached the counter, Levi bought a large bucket of popcorn to share, as well as drinks. They took their new snacks and entered the designated theater, finding some empty seats near the back to sit in as they waited for the previews to end. They chatted away about meaningless things until the lights finally dimmed in the theater, then settled down so they could watch the movie in peace.

However, that peace didn't last very long because Eren started flirting with the raven. He didn't mean to at first, his fingers accidentally brushing against the raven's when they both happened to reach for some popcorn at the same time. But after that he'd purposefully reach into the bucket when Levi did and would lewdly moan when he drank from the straw in his cup.

As much as he loved flirting with the cute brunette, Levi was tired of being teased and, in the mood to do some teasing of his own, slowly wrapped his arm around Eren's waist.

Eren suddenly let out a embarrassingly loud laugh as Levi's fingers firmly drummed up his side, effectively tickling him. He blushed a furious cherry red and ducked his head in humiliation as several people sitting in front of them turned around and glared in their direction.

"That was so mean, Levi. You big meanie." Eren's plump lips turned down in a pout and twisted away from the raven in his seat, still flustered over having laughed so loud in the almost (aside from the playing movie) silent theater.

"Oh come on, Eren. Baby, I'm sorry." Not quite sorry at his successful revenge, Levi tried to get him to move closer so he could give the brunette an apologetic kiss, but Eren simply ignored his whispers and paid attention to the movie that was playing. When Eren still refused to acknowledge any of his affectionate touches, Levi silently got out of his seat and knelt between the brunette's legs, looking up at his boyfriend through his lashes. He smirked as Eren's face flushed dark red, inappropriate thoughts most likely the culprit. "What are you thinking about, Eren? Me tugging your jeans down? Sucking you off? Or maybe bending you over this seat and fucking you?"

His sly smirk grew even wider when Eren gave him a small embarrassed nod and Levi took a moment to appreciate how cute his bashful little boyfriend was. However, Levi was planning to save the their first time together for another, more private, date, and simply ran a hand over over the bulge in Eren's jeans.

Eren bit down on his bottom lip as his jeans strained tightly against his growing erection and, as much as he wanted to be sucked off, they _were_. "Levi.... no, w-wait. We're in public."

"I know. Isn't it hot? Any of these people could turn around and see what we're doing." He felt Eren harden even more, under his groping fingers, and decided to take things just a little further. With one hand, he held Eren's hips up in place, and with the other hand, he began working open the brunette's jeans.

"L-Levi, please....." Eren was so painfully turned on, even with several rows of people sitting in front of them, and was eager to see where things were going, despite the slight uneasiness he'd felt just seconds ago.

Levi finally managed to unbutton Eren's jeans and slid a hand into the black briefs he was wearing so he could wrap his fingers around Eren's now rock hard erection. He slowly pumped his hand up and down the brunette's length, taking his sweet time to tease his already riled up boyfriend.

Eren's hand immediately flew up to his mouth to muffle all noises as Levi jerked him off and he thrust his hips up in time with Levi's maddeningly slow strokes, praying the raven would move faster because, at this rate, it'd be forever before Eren managed to get off.

After some whispered pleas from his brunette boyfriend, Levi took pity on him and began jerking him off at a much more satisfying pace, watching in amusement as Eren tried to muffle his lusty moans and heavy breaths.

With one final jerk of his hand, Levi watched as the brunette roughly threw his head back and, not a moment later, he felt something warm and thick coat his hand. He grabbed a few of the nearby napkins to clean his hand and to clean Eren off with, then readjusted the brunette's clothes so it didn't look like they had just been fooling around in the back of a dark movie theater.


	6. Chapter 6

Levi picked Eren up the next night for another date and, after a nice dinner, they ended up at one of Trost's classiest bars. This turned out to be a incredibly terrible idea on Levi's part because, after having only a few drinks, Eren was completely wasted, so the raven decided he'd take it easy and stick to one drink, since he'd most likely be the designated driver.

"Leviiii....." Eren twisted around on his bar stool, so that he was facing the raven, and tightly gripped Levi's arm, drunkenly staring into his alluring grey eyes. "You're soooo fucking cuuuuuute."

"Oh, is that so?" Levi was immensely amused by Eren's low alcohol tolerance and the cute hiccups the brunette was currently letting out in between sentences.

"Mmm, yeah. You are just the cutest man alive."

Levi didn't exactly think that he was the "cute" type, usually used to being called sexy or foxy, even spicy once, but he didn't dare argue with Eren's drunk compliments. "I think you're pretty cute too, Eren."

"Awww, Leviiiii!!" The brunette flung himself forward off the stool and wrapped his arms around the raven's neck, placing a flurry of kisses along his pale cheeks and jawline.

"You missed, brat." Wanting an actual kiss from the brunette, instead of fleeting little pecks, he grabbed the front of Eren's shirt and firmly locked lips with him once more.

Eren, in his drunken state, took this as a green light that he should take things further and began grinding down against the raven's hips, as he deepened the kiss between them.

"Alright, alright. Before you make things too inappropriate, I think we should go." As much as Levi loved having Eren sitting in his lap, making out with him, he really didn't want to pop a boner in public. So he regretfully pulled away and helped Eren off his lap, helping the brunette stumble back out to the car. 

As Levi began the short drive to his house, the car was completely silent and he thought Eren might have finally managed to fall asleep or pass out. But he should have known that he wouldn't be that lucky and that things wouldn't go that easy.

"Wait. Stop here." Eren barely gave Levi time to answer him, before jerking his seatbelt off and opening the car door, practically jumping from the still moving vehicle and, miraculously, landing on his feet.

"Shit!!" Levi slammed on the brakes and cursed at Eren's stupidity, before parking his car farther up the street and getting out to chase after the his drunk boyfriend "Where the fuck do you think you're going?"

Eren took a pocket knife out of his jacket, that Levi hadn't even realized he'd been carrying, and ran over to a black mustang parked in front of one of the houses, proceeding to slash holes in each of the tires, before carving different insults, ranging 'fuck you' to 'horseface', into several different areas on the car.

"Eren, stop!!" It was obvious that whoever owned the car took great pride in it, clearly making sure it was always clean, and that only served to make Levi's terror a thousand times worse. He had no idea who the owner of this nice car was and he sure as hell didn't want to find out, knowing that it would _not_ be a please ng encounter. "What the hell are you doing?!!"

"I am getting back at my ex for making my life miserable. Fuck you, Jean." He smashed the rear headlights in and went around to do the same to the front ones, smoothly kicking one the side mirrors off as he passed by. "Take that, you stupid horseface."

"Eren, you can't do that."

"Of course I can. Just watch me." Forgetting about the front headlights, he froze where he was and swung his fist forward, smashing the driver's side window open, which immediately set off the car alarm. He would have started destroying the inside of the car next, but two strong arms wrapped around his waist and dragged him away before he could even open the door. "No, let me go. Fuck you, Levi!! Son of a bitch."

"That's enough, Eren. We're leaving RIGHT NOW!!" He easily tossed the brunette over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes, and took off running towards his car as fast as he could, but he unfortunately didn't male it and had to step into an alley as the owner finally came out to see what was wrong with his car. Despite how much he had been panicking, Levi couldn't help the smirk that crept onto his face as Jean began screaming when he saw the damage that had been inflicted on his car.

"NOOOO!! MY CAR!! WHO THE FUCK DID THIS?! BASTARD, COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!!"

"Jean, please come back inside."

Not recognizing the other male's voice, Eren squirmed out of Levi's arms and also peeked around the corner to see who else was talking. 

A slim brunette was pulling on the others arm, trying to calm him down, and when that didn't work, the brunette tilted Jean's face down to deeply kiss him. "Come back inside and we'll deal with this in the morning."

"Alright, Marco. Fine."

Eren felt tears welling up in his eyes and he sunk to the ground, feeling a wave of depression crash over him as the realization violently hit him. "That's why he never showed up.....Jean was cheating on me."

"Eren, come on. Let's go home." Levi pulled the crying brunette to his feet and slowly lead the way back to his car. To make things worse, Eren was completely silent the rest of the ride home, except for his occasional sobs, which plagued Levi with both guilt and concern, as he was the one who'd thought drinking that night would be a good idea.

~

Eren awoke the next morning to find that he had a massive hangover and an terrible upset stomach. As he rolled over in bed, his arms brushed against something warm and Eren was pleased to see Levi sleeping next to him, his expression peaceful as he slept. Had he not been feeling like complete and utter shit, Eren would have been celebrating over the fact that he was currently in bed with the raven.

Letting put a small groan, as he finally began to wake, Levi's eyes tiredly fluttered open and he gave the brunette a small smile, before rolling onto his back to stretch the sleep out of his muscles.

"Ughhhh, what fucking happened last night?" Eren held a hand up to his aching head as he tried to recall the previous night's events. He could remember drinking and remembered kissing Levi a lot, but everything after that was somewhat fuzzy.

"You got shitfaced and wrecked your ex's car."

"WHAT?!!" Eren winced as his head ached at the volume of his own voice and he collapsed back against the pillows, trying to will his migraine away. "Holy shit. Please tell me you're kidding."

Levi was hesitant to mention the other guy, Marco, considering how upset Eren had been the previous night and he wasn't sure if he was in the mood to deal with another sob-fest, simply because he wasn't the best when it came to comforting people.

"I should probably go."

"No, take a shower and come downstairs. I'll make breakfast for us." The raven got out of bed and grabbed some sweatpants from the floor to slip on before heading downstairs, leaving Eren alone to do whatever it was he was going to do.

After laying in bed for another ten minutes, Eren finally made his way into to the bathroom and began cleaning himself under a stream of scalding hot water, all the while thinking unpleasant thoughts. He couldn't help but wonder just how long Marco had been in the picture and if Jean had been cheating on him with the other brunette from the start. Deciding that over-thinking everything would only make his mood worse than it already was, Eren dried himself off, dressing in boxers and an oversized sweatshirt, before finally shuffling downstairs to find Levi making omelettes in the kitchen.

"Good morning, gorgeous."

"Yeah. Sure it is." Unfortunately, not even Levi's corny compliments were enough to brighten Eren's currently crummy mood.

Judging by Eren's tone, he remembered everything that had happened the previous night and Levi figured he should try his hand at being a comforting boyfriend. Setting his spatula down on the counter, he crossed the room so that he was standing in front of his sulking brunette. "Hey, look at me. Eren?"

"What?"

"I know what it feels like to be cheated on and not have a clue. My previous girlfriend was cheating on me with one of my friends and I didn't find out until a month and a half after we broke up. She and I haven't spoken a word since then, but I heard she's still sleeping around."

"Damn, I'm sorry. That really sucks." Though Eren felt bad that something so unfortunate had happened to somewhat so perfect, he found comfort in the similarities of their situations and that they were able to relate to each other in such a way.

"People like her and Jean don't change. They just don't, okay?" The raven leaned forward to place a compassionate smooch on Eren's forehead, before going back to the stove to make another omelette. "But it doesn't matter anymore. All I can tell you is that things will get better. Especially when you're with me. I will treat you like a king, Eren, because absolute perfection like you deserves nothing less."

"Save the cheesiness for your omelettes, baby." However, hearing that made Eren's mood improve drastically and he couldn't help but return the small grin Levi sent him.


	7. Chapter 7

"Eren, are you sure this is a good idea?" Earlier that morning, Eren's parents had supposedly asked their son to bring him to bring over for dinner, which was why they were now standing out on the brunette's front porch. Levi wasn't normally one to get nervous over any type of pressuring situation, but he swore that his hoodie was a thousand times tighter than it had been seconds ago and it certainly felt like it was choking him.

"Of course. If we're gonna date, my parents wanna meet you." He leaned down to give Levi a quick comforting kiss on the cheek and smiled when the ravenette's grip on his hand tightened slightly. "Don't be so nervous, baby. They'll love you.....probably."

"Probably?!"

Before Levi could say anything more, Eren handed him the bouquet of flowers they had picked up on the way over and used his free hand to knock on the front door. He wasn't entirely sure that his parents would be thrilled at meeting Levi, as they hadn't exactly been fond of Jean, but Eren would put up a fight for the raven because he knew what a good man he was dating.

The front door finally opened and Eren's eyes widened as, much to his surprise, Mikasa greeted them with a smile, instead of his mother. The raven haired female usually wasn't home, preferring to spend the weekends with her girlfriend, Annie, so Eren was confused as to why she had now come home.

"Mikasa?! What are you doing here? I thought you and Annie had a date tonight....?"

"We did, but Mom told me you were bringing your boyfriend over for dinner, so I had to come over and make sure this guy wasn't another Jean. Annie completely understood; she told me to rough him up if he tried anything sketchy." She ushered them both inside and shut the door, taking the flowers from Levi and heading to the kitchen to put them in water.

"Well, she seems nice." His voice came out a tad louder than he meant and must have caught the brunette's mother's attention, because another female's voice called out from the somewhere farther in the house. 

"Eren, sweetheart?" 

They wandered down the hall to the kitchen and the woman looked up from where she was stirring something at the stove, smiling when she saw Levi and Eren holding hands. She had brown hair and green eyes, just like her son, and Levi instantly saw where Eren got all his looks from. "Oh my. You were right, Eren. He _is_ handsome."

Levi couldn't help but smirk at that and leaned closer, so that he could teasingly whisper in the brunette's ear. "You think I'm handsome, Eren? I'm positively flattered."

"Damn right, you're handsome, baby." He giggled softly as Levi kissed his nose and stole a few more quick kisses from the raven's lips. "Don't you forget it."

Mikasa looked up from where she was sitting at the kitchen table and made a face at them before looking back down at her phone screen. "Ew, that's so gay. Get a room."

"Says the super gay lesbian." Eren was quick to fire back and earned a smile from his adoptive sister, knowing she enjoyed their banter just as much as he did.

"Oh, stop it you two. And you, Mika, leave them be. I haven't seen Eren this giggly for someone in a long time."

"Mum, don't embarrass me." Eren felt his face flush in embarrassment as Levi's lips curled into a smirk, almost positive that Levi was going to tease him later about him being giggly.

She merely smiled at the two of them, knowing shed done her job as the embarrassing mom, and handed him a set of plates to bring to the table. "Go set the table, dear. Dinner is ready."

He did as he was told, placing the four plates around the table, and patted Mikasa on the head as he passed, snickering when she let out a soft "bork". 

Once everything had been placed on the table, Carla brought the pot over and began dishing out servings of pasta for everyone. The minute she sat down at the table, Eren took that as the okay to eat and began shoveling spaghetti into his mouth, blushing when Levi sent him a pointed stare.

"Eren, slow down and chew your food. Or you're gonna choke."

"Mmmm, you know what else I choke on?" The sly smirk on his face gave everyone a pretty good clue as to what he was thinking and he let out a gasp of faux pain as Carla gently slapped the back of his head, though the smirk Levi sent back at him made the entire thing worth it. "Mum...."

"Not at the table, dear."

"Yeah, save it for our bedroom, babe." He winked at Eren and burst out laughing when Carla's hand connected with the back of his head in another well aimed blow. "Sorry, Carla."

She gave Mikasa a warning glance, daring her to add something just as inappropriate, but the raven haired female merely shrugged and took another bite of pasta, not willing to press her luck and induce Carla's playful wrath any further.

When their delightful family dinner was finished, Levi helped Carla gather the plates and washed them, while she and Eren put the leftovers away in the fridge for another day. After having cleaned everything up, they all moved to the living room and Mikasa flicked the TV on, curling up against Carla on one of the couches, while Eren sprawled out across Levi's lap on the other one.

Eren shyly grinned as two strong arms wrapped around his waist, however Levi's hands were dangerously close to his ass and he was secretly hoping that they'd go a bit lower. "Are you trying to seduce me, Mr Ackerman?"

The smirk on Levi's face showed that he was aware of where his hands were and that he wasn't planning on moving them anywhere else any time soon. "Maybe."

Eren let out a soft squeal as the hands on his back moved down to his butt and gently groped him, dragging a half-laugh, half-moan out of him.

"You two having fun over there?"

Eren blushed at having been caught and stuck his tongue out at Carla, who was watching them with a knowing smile. "I don't know what you're talking about. We were obviously watching this movie, mum."

"Oh, I'm sure you were, Eren. And that's why you were ogling Levi." Mikasa had been watching, as well, and couldn't help but poke fun at Eren, knowing it would just make his embarrassed blush darker. 

As the movie played on, Mikasa paid less attention to it and more attention to Eren's interactions with Levi. The brunette had fallen asleep in Levi's arms and seemed pretty content with the tight embrace, which made her immensely happy. Mikasa hadn't seen him look that relaxed since Jean had been around and she was hoping that the brunette's happiness would last this time.

~

When Eren awoke the next morning, he wasn't quite sure where he was for a moment and frantically sat up, panicking until he realized he was in his old bedroom. However, his calm didn't last long and his anxiety skyrocketed once more when he noticed a certain somebody was missing from his room. Eren jumped out of bed, not even caring that he was still in boxers, and ran downstairs, wondering if Levi had already left, as it wouldn't have been the first time this had happened with one of his relationships.

However, the ravenette was relaxing on the couch and drinking coffee with Grisha, who must have finally come home after a long shift at the hospital. They seemed to be getting along rather well, so Eren wasn't worried about that department, but he was confused as to why Levi was still here. He hesitantly walked over to them, drawing both of their attention to him, and felt his face burn with affection, as he was suddenly pulled into Levi's lap, without warning. 

"Good morning, darling."

Grisha nodded approvingly at them and took another drink from his mug of coffee, immensely pleased with Eren's new gentlemanly boyfriend. "I must say, this boyfriend is much better than your last one, Eren."

"You stayed, Levi? You actually stayed?" Eren buried his face in Levi's neck and enjoyed the warmth the ravenette gave off. He smelled rather nice, too, like lavender and cinnamon and it was an intoxicating scent that Eren wouldn't mind waking up next to every morning, the strong scent making his head spin and heart pound.

"Of course. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I left while you were still sleeping?"

"A normal one?" Eren was confused as to why Levi was surprised, as he wasn't used to this kind of domestic morning treatment. Whenever Jean used to stay over, he would always be gone by the time Eren had woken up, which was why the brunette thought it was normal.

"Well, it's not going to happen with me." Levi lifted Eren's face so he could press a good morning kiss to those soft pink lips, then ushered the brunette off his lap and gestured towards the stairs. "Go change and I'll take you out for breakfast."

"Really?"

He couldn't help but grin as Eren joyfully sprinted back upstairs and turned his head as Grisha cleared his throat loudly, wondering what the boy's father wanted so badly. "Uhhh, sir?"

"Thank you, Levi."

"For what?" Levi wasn't quite sure why Grisha was thanking him, considering he hadn't really done anything, unless the older man was thanking him for not defiling the brunette in bed yet.

"For making my son happy. It's been so long since has Eren smiled a genuine smile like that. When Jean was around, Eren always seemed depressed, even more so after spending a weekend with the boy. I'm beginning to think there were a few problems in their relationship."

Levi wasn't sure whether or not he should tell Grisha what he knew. He wasn't sure how the man might react, but figured Eren's father deserved to know the truth, even if it shocked the man terribly. "Well....uhhh....."

"What is it, son?"

"It turns out Jean was cheating on Eren and the poor thing only found out a two days ago. It just crushed him and he was in tears over his shitty ex."

"But it seems you've managed to put him back together. You're a good man, Levi. And I'm glad it's you who's dating my son." They both looked up, their conversation abruptly ending, as Eren's voice was heard rapidly coming down the stairs.

"Leviiii!!! I'm ready to go."

Levi stood up as his boyfriend entered and took a moment to appreciate Eren's now fully dressed appearance. The brunette was wearing a pair of appealingly tight black jeans that put his gorgeous ass on display and a white t-shirt that read  **fuck you? no, fuck me**.

"Holy fucking shit, you look amazing."

"Such a way with words, babe. Thank you." Eren smirked and held his hand out to Levi, who happily and immediately intertwined their fingers, the two saying goodbye to Grisha before finally heading out the door.

Levi let Eren choose where they ate for breakfast so they ended up in a cute little cafe not too far from the brunette's apartment and the waitress quickly brought them to a booth, where Eren sat as close to Levi as he possibly could, without actually sitting in his lap. He giggled as one of Levi's arms wrapped firmly around his waist and affectionately leaned in closer.

"You're cute, you know that?"

"I do now." Eren let out a soft laugh as Levi's lips pressed against his neck and, though they were meant to be sweet gestures, the kisses were so gentle that they ended up tickling instead. "Levi, stop, seriously, we're in public."

A waitress appeared at their table and cleared her throat, cutting their flirting short. "So are you two ready to order yet or.....?"

Eren blushed and hid his burning face behind his menu in shame, pouting when Levi snickered at him.

"I'd like the crepes please, with white toast and scrambled eggs. Eren, dear, what do you want?"

"I'll have the same thing, please."

"Alright, I'll be back shortly with your food."

Once the waitress left, Levi turned back to Eren and smirked when he saw the brunette was still pouting. "You're really cute when you pout."

"Oh be quiet, you big meanie. Why do you like teasing me so much?"

"Because it's fun. Besides, I wouldn't tease you if I didn't care."

Eren couldn't keep the fake pout up and it quickly dissolved into a bright smile. "Just be lucky that I like you, Levi Ackerman, or I would ditch you and buy an Aussie shepherd to keep myself happy. Hell, I might buy a couple of them cause they are just so fucking cute."

Levi's eyebrows raised in amusement at that statement because Eren, of all people,  _would_  be the one to surround himself with dogs for happiness. "Is that so? Well, now I feel really lucky, knowing I could be replaced at any moment by dogs."

Their conversation about dogs was interrupted by the waitress bringing their food over and Eren chose the distraction to ask something else as they began eating, something he'd been meaning to ask since they'd left his parents house. "So Levi, what are we doing after this?"

"Well, I have work, so anything else will have to wait until later this evening."

"Oh okay." Eren didn't mean to sound so disappointed, though it unfortunately came out that way, but he had been hoping he and Levi could spend the day cuddling at his apartment.

Levi poked Eren's cheek, in an attempt to cheer him up. He knew the brunette loved being around him and, while he wanted nothing more than to spend the whole day with Eren, he couldn't just skip work again. "Don't sound so sad. I'm just going to work, I'm not leaving the country. Tell you what, we can do something later tonight."


	8. Chapter 8

After their romantic breakfast out, Eren had been dropped off at his apartment and spent he spent the majority of the day being productive. He did several loads of laundry, put the clean dishes away, cleaned his embarrassingly messy room, and managed to take one hell of a nap. 

As it got later in the evening, he forced himself to finally get up from his couch and began the hunt for some food. He paused in his search through the pantry, when his phone suddenly chimed from where it was sitting on the kitchen counter and momentarily abandoned his search when he saw it was a text from Levi.

**L: I'll be a bit late so eat without me. I'll eat before I come over.**

Eren sent a short reply back before going back to his struggle to find a meal that sounded good. He eventually decided on a cup of ramen, several cups of ramen actually since he had skipped lunch, and ate his meal while he watched some lame soap opera that was airing on TV. As he was tossing the empty cups in the trash, there was a knock on the door and Eren raced over to answer it, flinging the door open a little harder than he meant, which caused Levi's eyebrows to raise in amusement.

"You that excited to see me?"

Eren's face turned a darker shade of carmine and he gently smacked Levi on the arm, trying to will the color out of his embarrassed face. "Shut up and come inside, you dork."

"Uh no. You come outside. I have a surprise for you."

Eren grabbed his keys from the shelf by the door and locked his apartment up, before following Levi out to his truck. However, he didn't see anything that could be counted as a surprise, unless Levi was planning on gifting him his truck, which was logically doubtful. "What's the surprise, Levi?"

"You will just have to wait and see." He smirked as the brunette let out a long groan and drove away from the curb, once they were both comfortable and buckled up in the truck. "You honestly didn't think I'd just tell you, did you? That'd ruin it."

Eren's curiosity only skyrocketed as Levi got on the freeway and left Trost's city limits and he couldn't help but grin, leaning closer to cling to the raven's free arm. "Where are we going, Levi? Are you kidnapping me?"

"Ahh yes. You found me out, Eren. I am actually kidnapping you and stealing you away to the countryside so I can keep you all to myself."

"Sounds so romantic."

They passed by several turn-offs, before Levi pulled onto a dirt road that seemed to go on for an eternity and finally stopped the truck once they came to a huge, deserted field, which piqued Eren's curiosity by tenfold. "Why are we in the middle of nowhere, Levi? You're not gonna murder me, are you?"

Levi merely laughed, knowing Eren would ask something like that, and helped him out of the truck, proceeding to then tilt the brunette's face to the night sky.

"Wow, oh my god." In the cloudless only black sky, thousands of tiny stars shone brightly, twinkling brighter than anything Eren had ever seen before and it immediately took his breath away. "Levi!!! This is BEAUTIFUL!!!"

"You know what else is beautiful?" He smirked as Eren's face began to flush a deep crimson, the brunette knowing exactly what was coming and Levi wasn't ever one to disappoint. "You are."

"Oh, LEVI!!! Stop it."

"Just being honest. Come on." He lead the brunette over to the back of the truck where some pillows and blankets had been stashed and they curled up together under the blankets, staring up at the millions of stars in silence.

"You thought of everything, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I planned it out this morning with your father. Grisha told me you've always wanted to go star gazing and thought tonight would be a perfect opportunity for it."

It was silent for several more minutes and, as Eren watched the glittering stars overhead, he finally worked up the courage to roll over and face his boyfriend. "Hey, Levi?"

"What is it?"

"I think.....I think I'm in love with you."

Levi couldn't help but smile fondly at the mushy sweet confession from his equally sweet boyfriend, knowing it must have taken the brunette ages to finally say it to him. "That's so gay, Eren. But guess what? I think I'm in love with you, too, cutie pie."

~

Eren didn't remember crawling into bed last night, let alone Levi's bed, which meant that he must have fallen asleep on the drive home and he would have been extremely happy for that fact that he was in Levi's bed for the second time that week, except he was feeling like shit once more. He couldn't stop shivering even beneath all the blankets on the bed, his throat ached horribly, and his nose was running. The universe couldn't have picked a worse time to fuck up his nearly perfect life with a cold.

The sheets next to him were cold, so he assumed the ravenette was already downstairs. He hesitantly got out of bed and wrapped one of the blankets tightly around himself, slowly making his way down the stairs. "L-Levi, baby?"

"Yes.....?" Levi looked up from the TV, where a rerun of NCIS was playing, but his smile immediately vanished when Eren weakly shuffled into the living room, nearly ready to collapse from exhaustion. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I don't feel so good."

"Come here, pumpkin." He pressed the back of his hand to Eren's forehead, which felt unbelievably warm, and his frown only further deepened. "You're running a fever, baby. Sit down and I'll make you up some soup."

While Eren curled on the couch, Levi disappeared into the kitchen. He felt absolutely guilty about Eren's sudden fever. He was sure it was because they had spent so long outside last night in the chilly air.

The brunette had just looked so cute curled up against him as they lay in the bed of the truck, especially once he had fallen asleep. His hair had been a cute mess, his eyes fluttering and lips parted, looking like an angel as he slept in Levi's arms. 

"Leviiiii....."

Eren's voice jerked the ravenette out of his thoughts and he took the hot pan off the stove, pouring the steaming liquid into a bowl and took it back to the living room for Eren. 

As soon as Levi sat down, Eren crawled into his lap and took the bowl, snuggling up close to that warm body as he ate, though it did very little to help the shivers running through his cold body. "L-Levi....I'm so c-cold."

"I know. Just take it easy, okay? Later, I'll make a trip to the store and get some stuff for you." He took the empty bowl from Eren and set it on the table so that they could cuddle closer together, while Levi took that time to message Erwin and tell him what was going on.

Erwin replied almost instantly, probably wondering where he'd been, telling him to stay home and "take care of his beloved wifey". Levi despised how the blond would take advantage of any opportunities to poke fun at him and sent back a snarky reply, before finally setting his phone down. However, it's not like the giant blond was entirely wrong though, as Levi often did like to consider and treat Eren as his 'precious wifey', who he now returned his attention to. 

The warm soup and the gentle back rub Levi was giving him was making Eren feel incredibly sleepy and he buried his face in Levi's neck, letting the raven's comforting scent of lavender and cinnamon lull him into a peaceful sleep.

The next time Eren awoke, he found himself back in Levi's bed, snugly tucked under the warm blankets and, if the darkness outside the bedroom window was anything to go by, Eren guessed he had slept through a good portion of the day, not that it had done much good, since he still felt like shit.

He managed to drag himself out of bed and stumbled back downstairs to the dark living room, suddenly feeling incredibly lonely and craving affection from his raven haired boyfriend. "Levi....where are you? L-Levi?"

Even though this was Levi's house and the raven would eventually _have_ to come back, Eren's illness-muddled mind told him that Levi was finally tired of him and decided to move on, leaving him for good. It was incredibly hard to think with his raging fever and, at that moment, it was the only "logical" thing that he could think up.

Eren let out a shaky sob as he reached the bottom of the stairs, wishing Levi was there to kiss his tears away, and collapsed against the wall, slowly dropping to the floor. The cold tiles felt so good against his feverish skin and, finding he had no strength left to move, Eren just laid there, crying until he finally fell into an uneasy sleep.

.

It was almost a quarter till six when Levi got back to his house and he shifted the grocery bags to his other hand so he could pull his keys out. Just as he had promised earlier, he had made a quick trip to the store to get some stuff for Eren: orange juice, cough drops, medicine, more soup, and a cute stuffed puppy.

He pushed the door closed and let out a shocked gasp when he saw his precious brunette laying on the floor, bags dropping from his hands as he rushed over to check on Eren's clammy, slumped over form. He shook the brunette roughly until two emeralds eyes finally fluttered open and gazed up at him in confusion, as if his boyfriend didn't quite recognize him. "Oh my god, Eren!! Eren, are you okay?!!"

"Levi, you came back?"

"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I come back?" Letting out a long sigh of relief, he scooped Eren off the cold floor and carried him into the living room, gently placing him down on the couch. "Why didn't you stay in bed? Fuck, you had me so scared."

"I was looking for you.....but you.....you left me, Levi. Why did you leave me?"

Levi felt his heart shatter at the brunette's heartbroken tone and instead focused on running his fingers through Eren's fluffy brown hair, trying to calm him down. "I didn't leave you, darling. I just went to the store."

".....p-please don't leave me again, Levi. Please." Eren clung to Levi tightly, like his life depended on it, and he immediately felt calmer when the ravenette's arms wrapped around him.

"I won't leave, baby. I promise I'll never leave you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't quite sure what I should make Levi's job cause I'm not real business smart. So I just made them the manager/advisor of a chain of pet shelters, which will probably come into the story later.

The first thing Levi did when he awoke the next morning, was check on Eren and he was displeased to find that the brunette had a slight fever, thought it was considerably better than it had been the day before. Finally pushing himself out of bed, he wearily trudged into the bathroom, retrieving a washcloth and soaking it in warm water so that he settle it over Eren's feverish forehead. The brunette must have been absolutely exhausted, considering he hadn't budged an inch the entire Levi had been moving about in their shared room, so he figured he'd let his poor, sick boyfriend sleep a little longer.

Levi had a multitude of things he had to get done, but needing some caffeine in his system first, headed downstairs to brew up a fresh pot of coffee. As he was watched the liquid drizzle into the pot, his restless mind began to wander, drifting to the unpleasant memories of Eren's reaction the previous day. In the entire time that they had been dating, Levi had never seen the brunette so hysterical and, though he knew his boyfriend had probably been delusional from his fever, he hoped he would never have to see something like that again, those large, tear filled eyes and forlorn tone instantly had Levi's heart shattering.

Pulling himself out of those dreadful memories, Levi filled his cup with the scalding coffee, along with some cream, then brought his mug back upstairs so he could get some work done in his office. He sat down at his desk and signed into his laptop, checking his email to find a message from Erwin. It seemed the blond was going to be hosting an upcoming company party and he was apparently expected to go, much to his introvert's displeasure. However, he figured he could just make the entire thing bearable, or actually delightful, by asking Eren to come along with him. 

Putting aside all thoughts of the unpleasant party, Levi refocused his attention on his laptop and checked the next email, which happened to be from one of the animal shelters. Apparently the manager was considering having a fundraiser, or some sort of adoption event, and wanted a bit of advice from the ravenette on how to go about it all so that'd it be a successful venture.

He knew several different ways that'd would work perfectly for the quickly-growing shelter and immediately began typing out an email, knowing he'd forget to do so if he waited, and just as he sent it, the wooden floorboards faintly creaked behind him. Closing the lid of his laptop, he spun his chair around to see Eren standing in the doorway, with a large, fluffy blanket wrapped tightly around his slim body.

"Morning, pumpkin." Levi his arms out and grinned when Eren sluggishly shuffled across the room, tiredly dropping into his lap. He pulled his ill boyfriend closer and buried his face in those soft chestnut locks, breathing in the scent of the brunette's spicy shampoo. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"I'm hungry......and sleepy."

"Alright. Let's get you downstairs and I'll make you something hot for breakfast." He tightened his grip on Eren as he rose from his chair and carefully placed the brunette back on his feet, before taking his hand and leading him downstairs to the living room. "Sit down and I'll be right back with your food."

As Levi departed for the kitchen, Eren stretched out his limbs in a failed attempt to wake himself up more, before tightly rewrapping the blanket around himself and comfortably settling down on the couch. When the raven returned several moments later, Eren was immensely delighted to see he had not only had a bowl of soup with him, but also a cup of hot tea in his hands. It only took him a matter of minutes to polish off both the soup and the tea, having been much hungrier than he'd originally thought and, after another dose of the awful tasting cold medicine, Eren had absolutely no trouble falling right back asleep.

.

After several lengthy, tiresome days of soup, cough medicine, and naps, Eren's health had shown vast improvement, much to Levi's obvious relief, and it seemed the brunette had returned to his previous energetic self. 

It was on one of those mornings, that Eren forced himself to awaken earlier than Levi's alarm and, wanting to somehow repay his boyfriend for all the care he'd shown, went downstairs to make breakfast for him. Because Eren barely knew the first thing about cooking, it was just a simple meal of scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and a steaming mug of coffee, made just the way Levi liked it. He nicely displayed everything out on a small tray and carefully carried it back up their bedroom, where Levi was now waking up, having shut his shrill wakeup alarm off.

The minute he laid eyes on his boyfriend, standing in the doorway with a tray of food, he gestured for the brunette to come closer, a sleepy smile barely contained over such a cheesy and romantic gesture. "Did you do that for me?"

The brunette simply nodded his head, as he bashfully sat down on the edge of the bed, and delicately deposited the tray onto Levi's waiting lap. "I just wanted to thank you for taking care of me, baby. I know I can be really needy sometimes, especially when I'm sick."

"Don't worry your pretty little head over it, Eren. You're cute when you're needy. You're like 'Levi, give me kisses.' 'Levi, make me soup.' 'Levi, let me cuddle you in my sleep even though I have a fever of 103 and am slowly suffocating you.'."

Eren let out a soft laugh at the clear exaggeration of his behavior and gently smacked Levi arm, trying to hide his flustered blush. "Oh come on. I'm not THAT needy. Besides, if I was that warm, why didn't you just get up?"

Levi slyly smirked at the brunette and teasingly poked Eren's cheek, enjoying the fact that they could easily banter back and forth with each other, with little to no problems between them. "Because I couldn't escape that death grip of yours."

Much to Levi's amusement, Eren merely shook his head in mock disbelief, like he absolutely couldn't believe any of the raven's outrageous words. "Stop telling stories and eat your breakfast."

"Yes, dear."

.

Several unexpected hours later, Eren stood outside the large building in front of him, nervously clutching the bags of food he held tightly to his chest. The raven had begrudgingly gone into work that afternoon to make up for some of the time hed missed while taking care of his sick boyfriend and now Eren wanted to surprise him with a nice lunch. He took a deep breath to calm himself, knowing Levi would be pleased to see him no matter what, then entered the building, however he was stopped at the front desk by a cheerful strawberry blonde.

"Can I help you, sweetie?" She had never seen the brunette's face around before and, seeing how uncomfortable he currently looked under her gaze, wanted to help him out if she could. 

Eren anxiously glanced around the lobby then warily back to her, feeling distressed as usual being around new people in new places, but didn't know where his boyfriend was and knew he would need help to find the raven haired man. "Hey umm....do you know where Levi is?"

"Oh my god. You're Eren, right?! Oh, Levi was right, you are a cutie. Don't worry, I'll let him know you're here."

"NO!!" He felt his face begin to burn in shame at how loud his voice was and shyly shook his head, unable to meet the woman's eyes. "S-sorry, I just.....wanted to surprise him."

"That's quite alright, dear. His office is on the third floor. If anyone asks, tell them Petra sent you up."

The minute the elevator doors slid open, heads turned his way and he received a lot of strange looks, which matched exactly how he felt, considering everyone on the floor was wearing trim, business suits, while Eren was dressed in his wrinkled hoodie and ripped jeans.

"Are you lost?" A redhead came bouncing down the hallway towards him and curiously peered down at him through her round glasses, wondering why she had never seen his face around before.

"Uhhh, n-no, ma'am. I'm looking for Levi."

She let out a loud cackle, which greatly startled him, and draped an arm snugly around his tense shoulders, which immediately made Eren feel more relaxed. He hadn't known what to expect when he walked into the building and everyone just seemed so compassionate and relaxed. "Geez, you're formal, kid. Just call me Hanji."

Almost as if on cue, a door at the end of the hall opened and Levi stepped out, a disapproving look plastered on his face. "Hanji, please stop getting distracted and actually do some work for once in your life."

It was only then that his attention was drawn to Eren and his frown instantly melted into a wide smile, quickly choosing to abandon his office in favor of joining the two of them in the hall, where he leaned closer to press a quick kiss to his boyfriend's lips. "Babe. What are you doing here?"

"I....umm....I brought you lunch."

"Babe? That's hilariously cute." Ignoring the obvious irritation that it brought upon her boss, Hanji leaned against him from laughing so hard, finally straightening when her laughter had died away. "Oh Levi. I never took you for the wishy washy type."

Levi let out an embarrassed scoff at the jab and grabbed Eren's arm to pull him back to his office, quickly shutting the door behind them to block out Hanji's yelling. "Sorry about that. Hanji is a......weirdo. Anyways, what's in the bag?"

"Its Chinese food." He hesitantly trailed behind Levi, following him to his desk chair, and let himself be pulled into the raven's lap. "I thought we could each lunch together, baby."

"That was so corny and romantic of you." After a chaste kiss, Levi began rifling through the bag and setting their food out on his desk. Just as they started eating lunch, the door to Levi's office slowly creaked open and an unfamiliar blond head poked in to stare at them.

"I didn't realize you had company, Levi." However, that knowing smirk on the blond's face said the exact opposite and Levi had a feeling that Erwin had simply stopped by just so he could meet Eren. "Is this the wifey?"

Eren turned bright red at that, never having been dubbed "the wife" before and quickly hid his face in Levi's neck, while the raven just let out a soft scoff. "Shut up, Erwin. You're so embarrassing sometimes, but yes, this is him."

Having recovered from his little bout of shyness, Eren finally raised his flushed face so he could flash Erwin a blinding, cheerful smile. "Hello, it's nice to meet you, Erwin."

"Oh my. He's definitely a keeper, Levi. He's a cutie." The raven immediately picked up the closest thing, which happened to be a pen, and viciously chucked it at the blond, however, Erwin, being the naturally graceful person that he was, effortlessly managed to avoid being hit. "Alright, alright. I get the hint. I'll leave. Have fun, you two. And don't forget to use protection."

"Erwin, I swear to God....." Levi was ready to throw something heavier, like the glass paperweight that was conveniently sitting within arms reach, but Erwin departed, the door quickly slamming shut, before he could pick it up.


	10. Chapter 10

It was the morning after their date at Levi's office when the raven finally worked up some courage to ask Eren about the company dance. He was in his kitchen, making them both breakfast while Eren sat at the counter and watched him flip the omelette he was currently working on. "Hey, Eren, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything, baby."

"Okay, well, there is this huge company party coming up and Erwin is forcing me to go, so I was wondering if you maybe wanted to....you know.....be my date?"

"Levi, I'd love to! But I.....I don't have anything to wear."

Levi scooped the finished omelette onto a plate and placed it down in front of the brunette with a smile, knowing he could easily solve the dilemma of no formal clothes. "That's alright. After breakfast, we can head to the mall and get you a suit."

"Oh gosh. You don't have to get me one, they're probably hella expensive.....well, I guess it'd be alright. But just this one time, okay?"

It was a little after eleven when they finally headed out to the closest mall and Levi took Eren's hand in his, as they entered the complex together. They began wandering from store to store, doing nothing but leisurely window shopping, knowing they had the whole day to spend shopping. Eventually, they came to a store that sold suits, one that the raven knew very well apparently, and Eren let his boyfriend lead him inside, where a small blonde haired girl greeted the couple with a friendly smile, one that Levi returned in earnest. 

"Hello Levi, how can I help you today?"

Levi was always glad when Christa was working the store because, unlike her coworker, Ymir, the small blond girl was an absolute angel and she never made fun of Levi's somewhat short height. "Well, dear Christa, there is a company party in a few weeks and I need a suit for my man here."

"Okay, just follow me to the back." Christa lead them to a sitting area in the back of the store and took a few measurements of the brunette, which she jotted down in a small notepad she produced from her pocket. She then ushered him into a dressing room and walked back to the front so she could grab a few suits that matched his measurements.

Levi seated himself comfortably upon one of the sofas and watched as Christa returned, the small blonde passing the suits into the changing room for the brunette to try on. He had absolute faith in her, knowing from experience in buying his own suits from her, that she would be able to find something incredible for the brunette to wear.

As it was, he realized Eren was taking an terribly long time to change and Levi was starting to wonder if the brunette had run out of the store and he had simply missed it. He was contemplating whether he should get up to knock on the door or just stay seated, when the wooden door was finally and slowly pushed open. 

Eren shyly shuffled out, clearly looking uncomfortable in the dark suit that he had on, though the raven wasn't quite sure why because he thought it looked absolutely gorgeous. The black fabric hugged Eren's body quite nicely, without looking too tight or small, and showed off his lean frame.

Levi's eyebrows arched and he let out a long, appreciative whistle, knowing that no words would do justice to just how sexy the brunette looked. Eren was the picture of walking sin and he was so incredibly tempted to snap a picture of his handsome boyfriend to use for private purposes later on. "You looking fucking delicious in that."

"Oh stop." Eren could feel his face flush all the way to the tips of his ears and he buried his face in his hands, in an attempt to hide just how flustered he was. Never in his life had he been whistled at before or called "delicious", which momentarily made him question if he should feel ashamed that he was loving every moment of the attention.

"I mean it. Turn around for me, babe." When the brunette turned, Levi let out another whistle and flashed his lover a thumbs up, impressed that Christa was able to pick out a perfect suit on the first try. He knew for a fact that Eren wouldn't have to go back in and try on the other suits, not when this one fit so perfectly. "I absolutely love this. We'll take this one, Christa."

The blonde nodded and lead Levi to the register, at the front of the store, so he could pay for the outfit, while Eren went back into the dressing room and changed. When he finally rejoined them up front, Christa took the suit from him and hung it on the shelf behind her. "I assume you'll come back for this when you're done shopping, Levi?"

Levi simply nodded at her, having had this same conversation every time he visited, and placed the receipt he received in his pocket, before leading the brunette out of the store.

The moment they stepped outside the suit shop, the familiar scent of Chinese food hit Eren's nose and he blushed as his stomach growled rather loudly. It seemed the omelette Levi had made hadn't kept him full for long and he was desperately craving some Chinese food. "Could we maybe get some lunch, Levi?"

"Absolutely. Wait here and I'll be right back." He stopped them by some benches not far from the food court and gave Eren a quick kiss on the lips, before heading towards the Chinese restaurant located in the food court, planning to get Eren's favorite coconut shrimp and white rice, as well as something else for himself.

The brunette sat down on the closest bench, content to simply watch the shoppers go about their business in the mall, finding it interesting in some of the stores that people visited, but when Eren's stomach let out another loud rumble, the brunette realized it sure was taking Levi a rather long time to get their food. He leaned forward over the back of the bench, scanning the food court for Levi, thinking that his boyfriend might have gotten lost by accident, as that was totally something that would happen to him.

However, his eyes finally landed on the raven a moment later and Eren swore he felt his heart stop at the shocking view he had from his bench. Jean Kirschtein, his ex fiancé, had Levi pinned against the wall and was kissing him, while the raven had his hands resting firmly on Jean's shoulders. From the looks of things, the kiss didn't seem like it was going to end anytime soon and Eren forced himself to look away from the scene and he tightly squeezed his eyes shut and took in shaky deep breaths, trying his hardest to keep himself calm, as he was sure that it'd just been a random couple that he had seen. After all, Levi would never cheat on him in a million years, not when he was practically the model boyfriend, however, when Eren's eyes fluttered back open, he found himself staring at the two who were still kissing and just like that, he felt his heart shatter with a sharp pain, as hot tears began to stream down his cheeks.

He thought Levi had been different, that the raven had cared for him and _loved_ him. Eren closed his eyes and took deep breaths, trying his hardest to keep himself calm. He was sure that it'd just been a random couple that he had seen. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the two kissing. Just like that, Eren felt his heart break in two and he let out a soft sob, as tears began to form and roll down his cheeks. He thought Levi had been different, that Levi had cared, that Levi had LOVED him. He suddenly felt so angry at himself and stupid for believing that Levi had actually been different. Eren had been careless and let himself fall in love again with sweet words and gentle touches, only to be betrayed by the one who said he'd never do such a thing like cheating. What a liar the ravenette was. All those dates had been a farce and those "I love you's" had obviously just been fake. Levi was really no different from Jean, who it seemed the ravenette also preferred to sneak around with. Eren turned and ran towards the nearest exit, wanting to get as far away from the two heartbreakers as he possibly could. ~ Levi placed his hands against Jean's shoulders and shoved the tall male away. The bastard had suddenly appeared from God knows where and before the ravenette could say anything he was pushed against the wall and forcefully kissed. It had to have been the worst thing Levi had ever experienced. "Ughhh, God!! That was so fucking disgusting." Jean gave Levi a smug grin and, after a moment of thought, nodded in agreement. "You're right. Kissing Eren is much more enjoyable. He lets out these cute little moans when I force my tongue into that pretty little mouth of his." 

"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU BASTARD!!" The ravenette was beyond furious that Jean would talk about Eren, as if he was some sort of sex slave, instead of a human being with thoughts and feelings. The brunette was incredibly smart, as well as witty, and unbelievably trusting, not just something that anyone could tongue fuck the living daylights out of.

"Oh, is somebody jealous that _I've_ actually fucked that sweet ass? I'm really surprised you haven't gotten laid yet. Normally, the little shit gives it away like candy on Halloween night-...." He suddenly staggered back as Levi landed an unexpected and well-aimed punch to his jaw, looking shocked that the raven was capable of such a thing.

"Don't you EVER talk about my Eren like that again or, I swear to god, I'll beat the living shit out of you, Kirschtein." Trying to contain his unbridled fury, he snatched their bag of food up from where it had fallen and furiously stormed away, back to the bench where he'd left his precious little lover, but the brunette was nowhere to be found, which instantly had Levi panicking.

He quickly yanked his phone out and dialled his boyfriend's number, knowing he was probably worrying himself sick for no reason. It was likely that Eren had just wandered into a nearby store, noticing something that he liked, and would come running out once he was realized Levi was waiting for him. But after several rings, there was still no answer and the message was directed straight to voicemail. Trying to contain his ever growing panic, Levi tried once more, with hopes that Eren had dropped his phone and hadn't managed to answer the first call in time.

However, when his second call wasn't answered, Levi realized he wasn't going to get anywhere by calling and jammed his phone back into his pocket, taking off in search of his brown haired lover, immediately rushing up to the nearest couple to ask for any information about by is missing boyfriend. "Excuse me? Have any of you seen my Eren around? He's tall, has gorgeous brown hair, and the most beautiful green eyes."

When they shook their heads, Levi hurried away and hoped to God that Eren was alright, nearly an hour and a half passing before Levi finally gave up and headed home. He couldn't help but fear that Eren had possibly been kidnapped, though the more reasonable part of his mind was telling him that the brunette had simply gone home.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like all bad things, it will get worse before it gets better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING! SUICIDE ATTEMPT AND BLOOD!

Several days had gone by since the horrible incident that had taken place at the mall and, having fallen into a depression of sorts, Eren hadn't left his apartment once during that entire time, instead choosing to hide out in his bedroom on most days. His adoptive sister had been ready to kick the raven's ass when she heard what happened, while Eren's parents had been utterly shocked that Mr "oh so perfect" Levi had cheated on him, simply unable to believe he would do such a thing, even though Eren told them time and time again that he'd seen it happen with his very own eyes.

Being the concerned parents they were, they had tried to get him to talk to Levi, but Eren had refused to answer any of the raven's calls or texts, which was proving to be extremely difficult since Levi had been texting and calling him nonstop since that day. Eren had been in the middle of another crying sessions, when the doorbell to his apartment suddenly rang. Figuring he should get out of bed at least once that week, Eren blindly stumbled out of his bedroom and down the hall, not even caring that he looked like an absolute mess; he finally reached the front door and yanked it open, only to immediately slam it shut again, when he saw who was standing on his doorstep.

"No, Eren. Please." Not understanding why or when things had gone so horribly wrong, Levi urgently knocked on the door several times, hoping it'd open once more, so he could talk things through with his upset boyfriend. "What's wrong? Why won't you talk to me? Why haven't you been answering any of my calls or texts?"

"You know why, you son of a bitch!" He couldn't believe that Levi, of all people, would play dumb with him, though he probably should have been used to it, considering Jean would always do the same exact thing whenever Eren would ask where he'd been on the nights that he'd stay out.

"What?! What are you talking about? Please, open the door, baby." The door swung open once more, just as he had originally hoped, however, the brunette furiously stepped out and, before Levi had any time to react, was harshly slapped across the face by him. 

"Don't call me baby. You broke my heart, you asshole. I trusted you, I loved you! AND YOU FUCKING CHEATED ON ME!" Having said everything he wanted to, Eren viciously shoved Levi away and slammed the door to his apartment shut, collapsing against the door so he could cry his eyes out for what had to have been the millionth time that week.

"Oh Eren, I swear to God, you know I wouldn't. I don't know what you think you saw, but I didn't kiss him. _HE_ was the one who kissed me."

"Uh huh. I'm s-sure that's w-what happened. Sounds exactly like something Jean would say."

"I'm sorry you don't believe it, but that is what happened." Levi didn't receive a response and anxiously shifted from foot to foot, desperately wanting Eren to believe him, however he knew what the brunette was like. It would take time for things to go back to normal between them and Levi thought that it would probably be best to give him space until things got better. "Alright, if you aren't going to believe me, I'm not gonna stand here wasting my time. See you later, Eren. Call me if you wanna talk."

Tears only flowing harder at that statement, Eren dejectedly watched out the front window as he watched Levi walk back to his truck. He supposed Levi _could_ have been telling the truth, but Eren had seen it happen and he knew, firsthand, just how hard it was to cope with a cheating partner. 

_I'm not gonna stand here wasting my time._

Were all those dates a waste of time? Their shared kisses and "I love you's" really just a waste of time? Was he just a waste of time to Levi? That scared Eren more than anything: not meaning anything important to his boyfriend; at the same time, however, he was also used to just being cast aside for someone else. And the way he saw it, there was only one solution to that problem.

Drying his eyes and gathering his nerve, Eren pushed himself up and headed to the kitchen, rummaging through the drawers until he found the sharpest knife in the kitchen, which he held in place just above his bare wrist.

_I'm not gonna stand here wasting my time._

The ravenette's words rang out loudly in his head and, before he could even think a bout what he was doing, Eren squeezed his eyes shut, harshly slicing the blade across his wrist. He let out a sharp gasp at the familiar harsh pain that flashed across his arm, quickly accompanied by the warmth of freshly spilt blood. He took a deep breath to steady his momentarily shaky hand and then sliced another deep cut along his wrist, just below the first one, adding one cut for every disappointment in his life, one cut for all the promises that had been broken, one cut for every time he had lost some who had supposedly "loved" him.

~

Mikasa knew the brunette had been going through some hard times, especially after his recent break up with Levi, and, having brought ice cream to cheer her brother up, she unlocked the door to Eren's apartment, using her spare key. However, the moment she stepped inside the small apartment, the smell of blood strongly greeted her and she knew she most likely wasn't going to like whatever awaited her further inside.

"Eren? Eren, where are you?" She slowly approached the kitchen and let out a shrill scream, dropping the ice cream tub on the floor. She could faintly feel some of it splatter against her legs as the container split open, but she couldn't tear her gaze away from the horror in front of her. Passed out on the cold tile floor and white as a sheet, Eren was laying unconscious, in a pool of his own dark crimson blood, which was still dripping from the dozens of deep, crisscrossing cuts that littered his pale wrists.

"Eren, n-no. What have you d-done?"

~

"God, I have no idea what I should do. He didn't even want to look at me, let alone talk to me." Levi was feeling absolutely heartbroken that Eren hadn't wanted to talk things out with him, which now resulted in another day without the brunette by his side. He missed waking up in bed with his younger boyfriend and cuddling with him in the mornings before work, as well as cooking breakfast for him and seeing that dazzling smile whenever he teased the brunette.

"Oh, Levi. If yoh just give it a little more time, I think he'll be ready to talk it out with you." Erwin couldn't believe that Levi and Eren's relationship had just ended like that, especially considering how happy they'd seemed together. However, after Levi had explained Eren's past and what had gone down at the mall, Erwin could easily understand why the brunette had gotten so upset, even if it was all just a huge misunderstanding.

Levi let out another dejected sigh and set down his coffee mug on the break room counter, as his cell phone began to ring; he ignored the blond's curious stares at him as he answered the call. "Hello. Yes, this is Levi. Oh.....god. P-please tell me you're kidding. Is he going to be okay? F-fuck, I'm on my way."

"Levi, what's wrong?" Erwin noticed that his friend's entire attitude had changed completely just from that one phone call, moving from heartbroken to horrified, and that worried him greatly, as there generally wasn't a lot that upset the ravenette. "What happened?"

"Eren.....h-he tried to commit suicide." Levi simply couldn't get over the shock that Eren had attempted to commit suicide; he'd known the brunette had been upset by the incident at the mall, but he had never thought for a moment that Eren would try to take his own life. "Erwin, I.....I have to....."

"It's alright, Levi. Go to him. Hanji and I can hold down the fort here."

~

Levi hurried into the hospital's waiting room and, as soon as Mikasa saw him, she jumped out of her seat, slapping him right across the face, just as Eren had the day before; Levi couldn't even blame her for it, as he honestly felt like he deserved it, being the failure of a boyfriend that he was.

"This is all your fault, Levi."

"I know. I feel absolutely horrible. I shouldn't have let this happen."

"What happened? How did it get to this?"

"We were at the mall and I left Eren's side to get us lunch. It was only for a moment, but Jean just came out of nowhere and kissed me. Eren must have seen and assumed the worst. I swear to God I would never cheat on him."

As soon as Jean's name was mentioned, Mikasa's eyes narrowed and, considering how well she knew her brother's cheating ex, she was immediately able to piece together everything that had happened. "Did you just say Jean? As in Jean Kirschtein?"

"I guess? I don't know the guy's last name."

The raven haired female abruptly pushed past him, without waiting for any more answers, and Levi had a feeling he knew where she was going, however someone else caught his attention before he could question it any further. Carla shuffled out of one of the hospital rooms and down the long hallway, looking extremely somber, though her mood improved slightly when she saw Levi hesitantly approach her.

"Carla, I.....I'm sorry. I should have stayed with him. I should have talked to him, begged him to let me in. If I had, maybe he wouldn't have......fuck, it's all my fault...." Despite how strong he always seemed to be, Levi had a breaking point as well, and let out a shaky sob, as his pent up tears finally began to overflow. He may not have had Eren by his side, however he was incredibly grateful for Carla, who pulled him into a comforting hug to try and lessen his tears.

"Shhh, don't cry, sweetheart. Everything will be alright."

However, nothing was alright for Levi and he cried for everything that had been lost: his and Eren's relationship, Carla and Grisha's trust in him, possibly the life of the person he loved the most. He knew for a fact that he would never be able to forgive himself if Eren didn't make it through this, that he would forever be blaming himself if the brunette ended up dying.

"This isn't the first time Eren's tried this, sweet pea. He'll be okay. Go and wait with him, dear, and Grisha will be in there later to check on him. "

As soon as Carla pulled away from him, Levi rushed down the hall towards Eren's room and his tears began to flow once more when he saw the brunette; Eren, laying unconscious in the bed, had bandages wrapped up both of his wrists and an IV connected to one of his arms. The only thing Levi found comfort in was the steady beep of the heart monitor, which showed the brunette was alive and fighting for his life.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy, don't hate if I have grammar mistakes. I didn't edit this yet.

Mikasa pounded on Jean's front door with murderous intent as she thought of all the ways she could possibly murder Eren's piece of shit ex; currently, her favorite methods were slicing him up and hiding his body in the river that flowed not too far from the Jaeger house. "JEAN, IF YOU DON'T OPEN UP, I'M KICKING THE DOOR IN!!"

The door slowly opened a crack and a timid brunette poked his head out, clearly scared to open the door any farther. "C-can I h-help you?"

"You can tell me where Jean is so I can fucking murder him."

"I'm s-sorry, but Jean isn't here right n-now."

"Listen, my brother tried to commit suicide because of Jean and I want that horseface to be a man and own up to his mistakes."

After that, the brunette's whole demeanor changed. His brows furrowed in anger and he whirled around, stomping back into the house. Mikasa followed him in and slammed the door shut behind them. "JEAN, GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!!!! RIGHT. NOW."

"Geez, Marco. What's your problem?" He stopped as he reached the bottom step and paled considerably when he saw Mikasa. If she was here, then nothing good awaited him because Mikasa was the avenger of her brother, the bringer of death to anyone who dared mess with the brunette. "What is she doing here?"

"What on Earth did you do, Jean? She just told me her brother tried to commit suicide."

Jean's jaw dropped in shock. He had just been trying to get back at the brunette for wrecking his car. He had never imagined that the brunette would take things so seriously. "Oh my god. I.....I'm sorry. Is he.....?"

"No, but if he dies, I'll make sure you do too. Now, tell me the fucking truth. Is it true that you kissed Levi?"

Marco's eyes widened in surprise and he immediately shoved the other male away from him. "Jean!! You kissed another man?!! How could you cheat on me?" 

"Oh, it's his specialty."

Jean glared at Mikasa for ruining his day with all this news and let out an irritated sigh. "Alright. It's true. I did kiss Levi, but only cause Eren wrecked my car. I wanted to get even with him."

"What did you expect would happen?!! You proposed to him then left him at the alter, you jackass. Not to mention you were cheating on him with this guy the whole time."

"Jean......how could you do something so horrible....?" Marco could feel tears welling up in his eyes. He felt beyond horrible that he had broken up a relationship without ever knowing it and that other boy was now in the hospital because of it. "Jean. Don't call me, don't come by my apartment. You and I are through."

"Fine. Get the hell out of my house. You too, Mikasa. Guess this is what I get for falling in love with too many guys at one time."

"Jean, when Eren wakes up, you need to come down to the hospital and tell him what happened." Leaving that in the air between them, she followed Marco out of the house and went back to her own car, planning to head straight back to the hospital.

~

Levi had been sitting by Eren's bedside for quite some time now and he had a perfect view of the hallway. He could see Grisha talking to Carla and both looked equally exhausted, which brought another immense wave of guilt crashing over him. However, was wrenched from his self-blaming as the heart monitor attached to Eren suddenly began beeping rapidly. "Eren? EREN!!"

Grisha immediately stopped talking and grabbed the nearest nurses, before rushing in. 

"W-what's going on, Grisha? Is he okay?" He could feel another break down approaching as Grisha avoided answering him, which even Levi knew was never a good sign.

"Levi, son, you have to leave. NOW!!!" He gave the ravenette a small push towards the door, but Levi didn't want to leave quite yet. If something was wrong with Eren, Levi needed to be by his side and be there for him, something he had failed to do for the brunette last time 

"NO!! I can't leave him, please!! I CAN'T!!" Levi struggled against the blonde nurse who had grabbed him and began regretfully dragging him towards the door, but it was no use and he was pushed out of the hospital room, the last thing to catch his ears being "he's going into cardiac arrest."

Levi could feel more hot tears rolling down his cheeks, as he blankly stared down at the scuffed tiles, and he flinched when gentle fingers carefully brushed them off of his blotchy, tear-stained cheeks.

"It'll be okay, sweetheart. Mama Jaeger will take care of you." Carla wrapped her arms tightly around him, leading him back towards the waiting room, and Levi was grateful he had someone to comfort him as he cried his heart out.

~

Several days had passed since that harrowing night, leaving everyone on sleepless and on edge, and it was on that morning when Eren finally awoke, letting out a weak groan as he slowly began to come to his senses. His tired eyes fluttered open and he found several people standing in his room, though it took a couple of moments for his vision to clear enough for him to recognize everyone.

He had heard the brunette's groans and, as soon as he was sure Eren was really conscious and aware of his presence, Levi rushed over to place several kisses against those pale cheeks. "Oh my god. Eren, baby, I missed you so much!!"

Mikasa roughly elbowed Jean in the ribs and returned the vile glare that he was currently sending her way, fully intent on her brother hearing the truth, one way or another. "Eren, Jean has something he'd like to tell you."

"Ouch, okay. I'll tell him." Jean glanced at the other two then slowly back to Eren, considering how he was going to go about this. "Can we please have a minute alone?"

After many protests, the two ravenettes hesitantly left the room and Jean sat down beside Eren's bed, immediately noticing just how gorgeous his ex looked, even under the stark hospital lighting. "Look, Eren, Levi didn't cheat on you. I was mad at you for wrecking my car and so I kissed Levi hoping you'd see it."

And that meant Eren overreacted about the whole situation, just as he tended to do with everything else in his life. He let out a weak, embarrassed groan at his terrible fuck up and hid his face in his clammy hands. "Oh god. And I was so horrible to him. Levi probably hates me now."

"That's okay, Eren. If Levi doesn't want you, I'll take you back and things will be exactly like they were before." Jean may have fucked up his chances with Marco but there was no way he was just going to let Eren slip from his grasp. He brushed his fingers against Eren's cheek and smiled down at the brunette. "You're still so incredibly beautiful, Eren. Did you know that?"

"Can you please get Levi for me?" Eren needed to talk to Levi immediately, if there was any chance of saving their relationship. He didn't want the ravenette to hate him for this whole misunderstanding.

"You know I never stopped loving you, right?" With no one else in the room, he leaned closer to Eren, hoping he'd be able to steal a kiss from the brunette's lips, which looked just as gorgeous and pink as Jean remembered.

"No, stop. Levi!" Eren attempted to push him away, not wanting to any of his ex's domineering kisses, but after laying unconscious in a hospital bed for several days, his body's strength was much weaker than before and it was ridiculous just how easily the other overpowered him. "LEVI!!"

Momentarily forgetting that he had tried to end his own life, Jean grabbed his wrists to pin them down and, as soon as those long fingers tightened around his wounded wrists, Eren let out an involuntary scream. A pain flashed through his wrists so intense, that he immediately felt on the verge of either throwing up or passing out, whichever would get him help sooner.

Levi jumped out of his chair the instant a loud, hair-raising scream came from Eren's hospital room and, praying his precious angel was okay, sprinted towards the door with Mikasa right on his heels. He burst into the room to find Jean leaning over Eren and it only took seconds for the ravenette to connect the dots. That horsefaced bastard had tried to make a move on _his_ Eren.

Levi was absolutely furious that Jean would even think about touching his, especially after the incident in the mall, where he'd talked absolute shit about the beautiful brunette. He swiftly crossed the room, in just a few steps, and grabbed the front of Jean's shirt, roughly shoving him to the hard floor. "BASTARD!! WHAT THE HELL DID I TELL YOU?!" 

"N-no, I swear I wasn't doing anything."

Levi knew Jean was lying and that pissed him off more than anything, that this sleezeball was trying to deny doing anything sick to _his_ Eren. He brought his fist down and there was a satisfying crunch as his knuckles connected with bone. Levi lashed out again and again, taking out all his pent up stress from the last couple of days and unleashing it upon the horsefaced bastard underneath him.

At some point, he found that he had been dragged off of Jean and wasn't surprised to see Mikasa had taken his place, the sight making him smirk with a morbid feeling of satisfaction. When Levi had calmed down enough, he pushed himself up and hurried over to Eren, who had tears of misery trailing down his pale face. Levi took one of the brunette's wrists in his hand and raised it to his lips, planning to kiss it, but was horrified to see the white bandages slowly being soaked crimson with fresh blood.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" The door was flung open and Grisha's voice suddenly rang out, stopping all movement and commotion in the room. He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed furiously. He motioned for the two nearest nurses, standing in the hallway, and lead the group into Eren's room. "What the hell is wrong with you three?"

The two nurses helped Jean into the nearby chair and began to examine the extensive damage done to him. He had a broken nose, a split lip, several missing teeth, and two black eyes. While the female nurses were busy with Eren's ex, Grisha gently took care of cleaning his son's wrists and wrapping new bandages around them. "How are you feeling, son?"

"It hurts." That was all he could manage, still feeling so incredibly nauseous and weak from the sudden pain that had coursed through him, though the sharp ache in his wrists had now been reduced to a dull throbbing. When he had finally finished winding the new bandages around Eren's freshly injured wrists, Grisha adjusted the IV bag by the brunette's bed, increasing the drip to allow the pain medication to flow faster. "I know, son. Just try to relax and get some sleep. The pain should fade once your meds kick in. Mikasa, dear, let's go. Jean, you come along, as well." 

Mikasa gave Eren a worried glance, hesitant to leave him after everything that had just gone down, and paused as she passed by Levi, knowing she could trust him to watch over her beloved brother. "Please don't leave him."

"Never again. I promise." 

When Eren woke up the next afternoon, he was feeling so much better, not at all woozy or weak, like he had been the day before, though his wounded wrists still ached with the slightest movements. His attention was caught by some movements at his bedside and he turned his head slightly, shyly grinning when he found the raven staring affectionately down at him.

"Good morning, darling." There was something different about Levi, something that took several moments for Eren to hone in on, and he let out a soft gasp when he finally figured it out. 

The ravenette's appearance was rather rugged. Levi had circles under his eyes, mussed up hair, and a slightly unshaven face; it was a look that Eren found to be extremely sexy and honestly wouldn't have minded seeing more often. 

"Holy shit, you look hot." Eren leaned forward and raised up his arm that wasn't ensnared by an IV, slowly running it along Levi's prickly jaw. "Mmm, don't shave this, Levi."

Levi ran a hand across his chin, after Eren's hand had pulled away, and made a face at the rather uncomfortable feeling, not understanding why his boyfriend loved it so much. "What, why? It's gross."

"No way. It makes you look like a sexy ass sugar daddy." Eren wasn't sure whether those were his own coherent words or from the pain meds he was on, but he meant what he'd said, either way.

Raising an eyebrow in amusement at those words, Levi let out a playful growl and leaned forward so he could capture those pink lips in a sweet kiss. "Mmmm, I like the sound of that."

Eren let his hand drop into Levi's warmer one and gently squeezed it, halfheartedly smiling when the ravenette squeezed back. "Thanks for staying, Levi. It means a lot to me."

"Of course, darling. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now." 

"Oh Levi. I'm so sorry." All of the ravenette's gentleness simply reminded Eren of how badly he had messed up the previous week and it brought fresh tears to his eyes. "I don't know how I could have doubted you! You're so fucking perfect."

"Shhh, it's okay. I don't blame you, baby."

"You don't.....why?" 

Levi gave him another kind smile and kissed the brunette's knuckles once more. "Because you've been through a lot of shit. You need someone to love you and take care of you. And _I'm_ gonna be that person, Eren."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cut some parts of the original out because I felt that they weren't needed. Also I haven't edited this yet, so there may be a few mistakes.  
> Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

After spending weeks in the hospital, Eren was finally allowed to check out and go home.

He sat in one of the waiting room chairs, filling out the paperwork, with Levi by his side. After turning the papers in to the reception's desk, they'd finally be free to leave.

Trying to work up the courage to ask his boyfriend something, Levi took Eren's free hand in his and studied the brunette's perfectly trimmed nails. "Hey, Eren.....?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I was wondering if, maybe, you wanted to.....you know.....move in with me.....or something?"

Eren took in a sharp breath and looked up at the ravenette in surprise. He had been dreading going back to his apartment, especially if it hadn't been cleaned after the mess he made, but it seemed he wouldn't have to, after all. "Are you seriously asking me? LEVI!!! I'd love to!!!"

"Really?" Levi wasn't sure why but he hadn't expected Eren to say yes so quickly. He hadn't realized how nervous he was until a wave of relief washed over him. "Well, we can move you in tomorrow, if you want. Erwin's off, so he will be able to help." 

"Sounds great!!" With his papers done, Eren lead Levi up to the front desk and handed the filled out release forms in.

"Mr Jaeger. Your therapist will be calling in the next couple of weeks to schedule a follow up appointment. Other than that, you're free to go. Have a good day, dear."

"Okay, thank you. Have a good one, too." 

Levi took Eren's hand in his and lead the brunette out to his car in the parking lot, where he helped Eren into the passenger seat.

"Soooo.....Levi? What do you have planned for tonight?"

Levi glanced over at the brunette and smirked, knowing that question would come up sooner or later. "What makes you think I have anything planned?"

"Cause I know you and I know that you like to surprise me."

"Alright, you got me. I do have something planned. I was gonna cook you a romantic dinner."

"Awww, really? That's so sweet of you, baby."

~

Levi had definitely pulled out all the stops for their romantic dinner. He had made a delicious seafood pasta and served it with white wine, in the living room that was lit only by candlelight.

Once they had finished dinner, cleaned everything up and washed the dishes, Levi scooped the brunette up and carried him back to the couch.

"What do you have planned now, Mr Ackerman? Are you gonna seduce me?"

The ravenette let out a chuckle and brushed Eren's bangs out of his face. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? But, no. I'm gonna wait until your completely healed before I try that."

Eren snuggled up against Levi and closed his eyes, comforted by the familiarity of everything. He had immensely missed kissing and cuddling with Levi. Suddenly realizing how exhausted he was feeling, Eren yawned into the ravenette's shirt and curled in closer to his warm body.

.

"You like that, don't you, babe?" Jean gave another hard thrust into the gasping brunette beneath him. He then leaned down and, for a moment, Eren thought the taller male was gonna kiss him. 

However, that would have been too romantic. Instead fingers wrapped tightly around Eren's neck, cutting off his supply of oxygen. "I love you, baby. I love you so much."

Eren's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to scream, but was unable to let out anything more than a weak whimper. He closed his eyes and prayed to God that Jean was feeling merciful and would let go soon.

Jean spoke again, except it wasn't Jean's voice this time. Eren opened his eyes and felt the urge to scream once more when he found himself staring into Levi's piercing gray eyes. The fingers gripping his neck tightened and those lips curled into an all too familiar smirk.

"I love you so much, baby. I promise you and I are going to be together forever."

.

Eren woke up from that nightmare screaming. He could still feel the fingers wrapped around his throat and hear the whispers in his ear.

He couldn't tell whether he was still dreaming or if he was actually awake. It all felt the same to him. The bed shifted and Eren shrieked as a hand brushed his skin. "DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!!"

He heard more movement from beside him and rolled off the bed before those fingers could push him down and wrap around his neck once more.

Eren felt like he was going to be sick so he blindly crawled to the bathroom, immediately leaning over the rim of the toilet. His body heaved and he gagged several times, but nothing would come up. And the nausea seemed to subside a little after that. 

Eventually the terror faded from Eren's mind and he found himself sitting all alone in the bathroom. He wished Levi was by his side comforting him and, as if response to Eren's thoughts, there a knock on the door. He looked up to see Levi standing in the doorway, a mug in his hands. 

Levi knelt down and set it on the floor, in front of the brunette. He had woken to hear Eren screaming and had been absolutely terrified by it. The brunette had sounded like he was being murdered. 

While Eren had fled to the safety of the bathroom, Levi had gone downstairs and made some hot tea for his precious little angel. "Are you okay, darling?"

"Oh L-Levi....it was h-horrible." Tears filled Eren's eyes as he recalled the nightmare he had had. 

"Come here and tell me about it." He sat down and Eren immediately crawled over, settling into the ravenette's lap. 

Eren took a few sips of the hot tea to calm himself and leaned against the firm body behind him. Several minutes of silence went by before Eren was actually calm enough to talk about it. "W-well, Jean was fucking me and I thought h-he was going to kiss me.....but he started strangling me-......"

Levi took in a sharp breath and wrapped his arms firmly around Eren's waist to comfort him. He knew the brunette had been through really rough times recently and this, no doubt, made things that much worse.

".....he k-kept telling me he loved me......but then I opened my eyes and it wasn't Jean strangling me anymore.....it was you."

"Oh god, Eren. I swear I would NEVER do something like that to you."

"I know. I just.....I have a fucked up mind."

"Don't say that. That's not true, darling." He leaned back against the wall, pulling Eren with him, and began to run his fingers through the brunette's sleep mussed hair. "Nightmares are normally caused by stress or trauma in a person's life, Eren. Did you know that? And you just went through something traumatic so it's only natural that you're having nightmares."

Just hearing Levi's voice was a comfort to the brunette and he never wanted it to stop. "Tell me a story, Levi."

"Alright." Levi kissed Eren's temple and took a moment to think of a story. "Once upon a time, there was this beautiful brown haired brat. He was such a reckless little thing, always getting himself into trouble."

"Am I the brat, Levi?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Anyways, this brat had gotten the smart idea of trying to end his own life and, luckily, someone was there to stop him. They immediately fell in love with his messy brown hair and dazzling green eyes and the cute way he'd blush when he got flustered. This man was so in love with the brat, that he treated him like a king and made sure to constantly shower him in affection, while teasing him every now and then."

"What.....happened?" Eren let out a long yawn and snuggled up against Levi's warm body. The horrible nightmare he had had minutes ago was already starting to fade from his mind and Eren was beginning to nod off. 

"The man proposed to the brat, married his cute little ass, then swept him off his feet and carried him away into the sunset, where they lived happily ever after." He gently kissed Eren's cheek, then scooped him up off the floor and carried him back to bed. "Good night, love."


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a little shorter than some of the other ones but there should be another update soon, so don't worry about it.

When Eren awoke the next morning, the sheets next to him were cold and the smell of coffee was lingering in the air. It seemed the ravenette had already gotten up and was making breakfast. Eren tiredly pushed himself out from under the covers and shuffled into the bathroom to take a hot shower, which just seemed to wash away the stress and anxiety that he had experienced the previous night.

As he was drying himself off with Levi's towel, he noticed the cuts on his arms. They stood out darkly against older, faded scars and Eren absolutely despised them. They were a grim reminder of all the shit he had dealt with, not to mention a major blight against his otherwise unmarked skin.

Eren slipped on a pair of boxers and one of the raven's shirts, then began searching for something that would hide his horrible scars. He ended up finding a sweatshirt that was just a bit too big. It might have been a little warm to wear, but he would put up with it, if it meant hiding all the marks on his now hidden arms.

Feeling much more content with himself, Eren skipped downstairs, grinning as the smell of food and coffee grew much stronger. "Good morning, baby."

"Morning, Eren. Breakfast is almost ready." Levi turned around to look at Eren and his eyes immediately narrowed when he spotted the brunette perched on the living room couch in a fucking sweatshirt. "Aren't you warm in that, baby?"

Eren shook his head a bit too quickly and plastered on a fake smile, however he could feel his anxiety flare up and knew this probably wasn't going to end well. "I'm fine, Levi."

Levi instantly knew something was up and he crossed the room in a matter of seconds, coming to stand in front of the brunette. "That's bullshit, Eren. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, okay?! I just don't see anything wrong with me wearing a sweatshirt."

"Except for the part where it's, oh I don't know, the middle of fucking summer. It's 80 degrees in here, Eren. Please, take it off."

"No."

"I'm sorry, did I stutter?"

"I said no." Eren stared up at him smugly, thinking that Levi would leave him be. But the ravenette took that as a challenge and lunged towards Eren, pinning the brunette against the couch cushions. Eren immediately began to shriek at him, trying to push the older man away to keep his wrists hidden "Get the hell off of me!!"

"Not until you take off the damn sweater." He grabbed the hem and began tugging it up Eren's body, despite the brunette's desperate struggle.

Soon enough, Levi managed to yank Eren's sweatshirt off and the brunette's fierce yells turned into pitiful sobs as Levi stared down at what his lover had been trying to hide.

Faint pink scars were visible up and down Eren's wrists; there were some newer ones, darker and redder than the others. Levi guessed that had been Eren's recent attempt at taking his own life.

"Ugly, aren't they?" Another loud sob escaped Eren's parted lips before he could stop it. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to disappear into the couch cushions and cease to exist.

Levi took the brunette's wrist in his hand and brought it up to his face, gently pressing his lips against the cuts. He kissed his way down that arm until the scars came to an end, then proceeded to do the same thing to Eren's other arm. "I don't think they're ugly."

"Oh, come on. You can't really mean that?"

"But I do."

"Jean didn't like them."

"Well, I'm not Jean. I find you absolutely beautiful, Eren, you and all your perfect imperfections." He leaned down to press a sweet kiss to those dazzling pink lips. "And I will continue to find you beautiful until the end of time."

"Oh Levi." Eren's eyes filled with tears and he tightly wrapped his arms around the ravenette's neck. He had never been told something so romantic and poetic before, nor been shown love to all of his flaws. "I love you so much. You're so fucking perfect."

"I love you too, baby. Now come and get some breakfast, okay? Erwin's gonna be here soon and I want you to eat before then."

.

Eren glanced around his old bedroom one last time, then followed the long hallway that lead to the front door, where Levi and Erwin were waiting.

It had taken the group just two and a half hours to get everything boxed up and moved to the ravenette's truck. Though, they might have been done sooner had he and Levi not been flirting the entire time.

"Are you ready to go, Eren?"

The brunette skipped out of his apartment and over to Levi's truck, where he and Erwin were waiting. Eren giggled at the way Levi blatantly stared at him with that 'I wanna slap your ass again' look on his face, which the ravenette had already done to him several times when they were in the apartment.

"Thanks for helping me move all this stuff out of my apartment, Erwin. It would have been _incredibly_ difficult without your help." Eren tightly hugged Erwin, who grinned at the seemingly innocent gesture and returned the hug. However, Eren knew the tight embrace would spark jealousy in Levi and smirked as the ravenette crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Of course. It was my pleasure, Eren." The blond backed away when Levi cleared his throat and sent an irritated glare his way. "I guess I'll just be going now. See you on Monday, Levi."

As soon as the blond had left, Levi slapped Eren on the ass and smirked as the brunette's cheeks flushed bright red. "You're a fucking tease, you know that?" 

"And you're too easy. I know exactly what buttons to push to get you all possessive." He leaned closer to place a kiss against Levi's lips, then strutted back to the truck, making sure to swing his hips as a little treat for the ravenette.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: another crappy blowjob scene near the end

That Friday evening was the night of Levi's company party and both of them were currently getting ready for it, Levi in the bedroom and Eren in the bathroom.

Being careful of his still healing wrists, Eren had slipped into his suit and had taken on the task of attempting to tame his wild hair. Levi suddenly appeared in the doorway behind him and startled the brunette with a loud whistle.

"Who's this handsome stranger standing in my bathroom?"

Giving up on his uncooperative hair, he turned around and let out a hum of appreciation at the stunning navy suit the ravenette was wearing. "I don't know, but this stranger likes what he sees."

Levi gripped Eren's hips and jerked the brunette closer, until their faces were mere inches apart. "Mmm, well how about a kiss, stranger?"

Eren closed what little distance there was between them and gave Levi a teasing little smooch, barely brushing their lips together.

Apparently not satisfied with that, Levi backed Eren up against the wall and gave his lover a real kiss, immediately tongue fucking the brunette as soon as Eren opened his mouth. And their heated makeout session would have continued had Levi's phone not gone off, showing a message from Hanji, who was wondering where they were.

Levi regretfully pulled away and, after straightening Eren's clothes, took the brunette's hand in his. "Come on. Let's get this shitty party over with."

~

While the majority of the crowd was either dancing or talking business on the sidelines, Eren was leaning against the back wall, jealously fuming as all the ladies flocked around Levi and flirted with him. He had originally been one of those people, but had rudely gotten elbowed out of the group by a bunch of loud women, which lead him to his current spot by the wall.

"Great party, eh, Eren?" Hanji had suddenly appeared from God knows where, but she had two champagne glasses, one of which Eren gratefully took from her. 

"No, this fucking sucks. All those hoes are stealing my man away. I can't even get to him." 

"Yeah, that happens. Levi is very popular with the women, but I doubt they all realize he's taken.....or even gay. Tell you what, hold my champagne and I'll sacrifice Erwin to them for you. Then you can steal Levi away for some quality time." 

The redhead winked at him before running off and Eren, having finished his own glass, began drinking her champagne as well. 

After several long minutes, loud laughter drew his attention and he glanced up to see the women gathering around Erwin, much to the blond's discreet discomfort. Seizing his chance, Eren rushed past the group and grabbed a startled Levi, pulling him towards the hallway.

"Eren, what's wrong?" Levi couldn't pull his wrist free from Eren's tight grip and the brunette wouldn't answer him, so he had no idea what was wrong. He let himself get led to the men's room, where he was immediately shoved into one the stalls. "Eren....?"

"Fuck you, okay? Fuck your handsome face, and perfect hair, and sexy suit....." Eren took several deep breaths to try and calm himself, but his jealousy was still raging wild. Without giving any warning, Eren pushed Levi up against the wall, so he could roughly kiss the ravenette.

While keeping Levi's lips busy in a heated kiss, Eren started undoing the buttons on his suit, just enough so he could gain better access to the ravenette's pale neck. 

Even though Levi found this unplanned makeout session _incredibly_ hot, he wasn't quite sure what lead to it and was hoping to gain some clarification on the whole situation. "W-wait....."

Eren ignored the weak protest and began his assault on Levi's neck, kissing and sucking harshly on the skin. Eren felt extremely confident in himself when the ravenette let out a deep moan and decided to take things further. 

He sunk to his knees and undid Levi's dress pants, letting them drop to the floor and pool around his ankles. He would have removed Levi's black boxers next, but a hand grabbed his chin and forced him to look up. He found Levi staring down at him, looking both equally shocked and aroused. It was a look that Eren definitely enjoyed. 

"What are you doing, Eren?"

"I'm gonna suck your fucking dick, lady-killer." 

After hearing those last two words, Levi realized where Eren's spontaneous jealousy had come from. But he never got a chance to say anything because his boxers were yanked down and a warm mouth closed over his erection. 

"Fuck....aughh-" Levi's head dropped back against the tiled wall as Eren continued to suck him off and his hands came to rest in the brunette's soft hair, grip occasionally tightening when Eren would tease him with that sinful tongue of his.

Levi was quickly approaching a climax, especially with those big green eyes staring up at him, and tried to push Eren off of him, not wanting to force the brunette to swallow anything if he didn't want to. 

However, Eren merely swatted his hands away and sent him a defiant glare, as if challenging him to climax. And he did, letting out a shaky gasp and doubling over as he came in the brunette's skillful mouth. "F-fuck, Eren."

"I know. I'm fucking incredible." The brunette swallowed everything and gave him a smug grin, knowing he was the reason why Levi was so flushed and short of breath. However, he felt much calmer and considerably less jealous now that he'd done something all those women would never be able to do to Levi. "Now pull your pants back up and come dance with me."

Still in shock over what just happened, Levi did as Eren said and made himself look presentable once more, fixing the brunette's wrinkled clothes, as well. By the time they got back out to the main room, the lights had been dimmed and a romantic song was playing for everyone to slow dance to.

Eren shyly smiled as Levi's arms wrapped firmly around his waist and he let his arm link around the ravenette's neck, as they began to sway in time with the slow music. However, he was honestly feeling less than great. Despite how confident he had felt while he was sucking Levi off, he now felt bad about just assaulting his poor boyfriend. "I'm sorry for not asking you about.....you know....."

"Don't be. That was fucking incredible, Eren." Levi knew that tone anywhere and he immediately leaned up so he could press a gentle kiss against Eren's lips. The last thing he wanted was for Eren to feel guilty or ashamed, especially when that had to have been the best blowjob Levi had ever gotten. "I'm sorry, too, for letting you get pushed away. At future events, I'll send the women over to Erwin, so I can spend my time with you."

The brunette couldn't help the laugh that escaped him as he thought about poor Erwin; after all, Hanji had done the exact same thing to the tall blond. The ravenette's words definitely made him feel better, though, because Levi was his and, to Eren, that's all that really mattered.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: smut at the end. If you don't want to read it, I'd suggest stopping like 3/4 of the way through.
> 
> Lmao, sorry if it sucks. I kept rewriting it and that is what was taking publishing so long.

Levi had been talking with Erwin and Hanji, both of whom suggested he should take Eren on a little vacation out of the country. And it was when they sat down that night to eat dinner, that he brought it up. "Eren, what would you say to taking a trip? Just the two of us."

The brunette paused with his fork halfway to his mouth, eyes immediately widening at the thought. He had never been out of the country and had always dreamed of traveling elsewhere. "Levi!! I would love to. Where were you thinking, babe?"

"Anywhere you'd like. We could go to Paris, or London, or even Rome."

All of those sounded incredible, but there was one place in particular that Eren had always wanted to visit. "What about Dubai? I read about it in a photography class I took Senior year and it sounded absolutely amazing."

"Of course, if that's where you'd like to go, then Dubai it is. You have your passport, right?"

Eren gave a sure nod, remembering how he had renewed it when his family had decided to travel to Germany for the previous Christmas. However, since then it had ended up lost in his closet and was now undoubtedly packed away in one of the many boxes he had brought to Levi's house. "I'll have to dig through some shit, but I know I have one."

~

Levi bought tickets for a flight set just a week after the discussion had been brought up. During that time, both he and Eren had spent the time packing what they needed and double checking to make sure it was all there.

The morning of their flight came around and it was much earlier than Eren desired, Levi's alarm having gone off at almost 4 in the morning. The brunette initially refused to get out of bed at such a God awful hour and only started getting ready once Levi dragged him out from under the covers. 

After having some breakfast and coffee, Eren helped his man load the luggage into the car that Levi had called for. The nice woman was extremely friendly the entire ride, despite the early hours and Eren's less than pleasant morning grumpiness.

Arriving at the airport a bit earlier than their expected gate time, they checked in for their flight and found some seats in a quaint little cafe, that was located near their flight gate. 

As they waited for their flight, Levi pulled out the camcorder, a gift he'd bought for them to use on their trip, and began recording. "Hey, guys. We are at the airport right now, waiting to catch our flight to Dubai. It's really really early right now, like four in the morning and Eren looks super fucking dead."

The brunette let out an irritated groan and turned his head away, hiding his face, when Levi pointed the camera at him. He loved Levi very dearly, but wasn't in the mood to deal with shit, wanting nothing more than to curl up and fall back asleep.

"Oh come on, babe. At least say hi." He winced as Eren flipped him off, then turned the camcorder back to himself. "Not quite what I meant. It seems Eren's a little bratty when he's tired. We'll try again later, once we land."

"Levi, I'm exhausted."

The ravenette turned the camcorder off and put it in his bag, draping his arm around Eren's shoulder to pull him closer. "I know, sweetheart. I am too, but once we get on the plane, you can sleep, okay?"

"M'kay." He let his fall against Levi's shoulder and listened to the sounds of the airport. He must have nodded off because an announcement for a flight on the loudspeaker was what woke him up. 

**"This is the final boarding call for flight 372A to Dubai. I repeat this is the final boarding call. Please proceed to gate A5 immediately. Thank you."**

Using what little energy he had left, Eren tiredly pushed himself out of the chair and took his bag from Levi, following the ravenette to their gate where they went through security and got their carry-on bags checked. 

Fifteen minutes after getting settled into first class, an announcement was made that the gates were closed and the plane was ready for take off, the flight expected to be 9 hours.

Once the plane was in the air, Eren reclined his seat back so he could finally get some much-needed rest. After being woken at 4 in the morning, Eren had no trouble falling asleep and must have slept for the entirety of the flight because he was finally awoken by the sound of the captain's voice filling the cabin. 

**"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We have just been cleared to land at Dubai International Airport. Please make sure one last time that your seats are in the upright position and your seatbelt is securely fastened. The flight attendants are currently passing around the cabin to make a final compliance check and pick up any remaining cups and glasses. Thank you."**

He looked out the window, as Levi began to stir beside him, the ravenette having fallen asleep at some point as well. It seemed that as the sun was high in the sky over the states, it was just setting in Dubai and the sky was quite dark, aside from the lights of the airport and city in the distance.

"Levi!! We're here. We're actually in Dubai!!" All of Eren's previous sleepiness and irritation had vanished, instead being replaced by abundant amounts of energy.

The ravenette couldn't help but laugh a little at Eren's excitement and leaned forward so he could place a kiss against the brunette's temple. "I'm glad you're excited, baby."

After the plane touched down, it took more than twenty minutes for them them to deboard and grab their luggage, mostly because Eren insisted they stop and look at every new thing, which the ravenette actually found to be quite endearing.  

As they left the massive airport, Levi hailed a cab, which took them to the hotel that Levi had made reservations at. It was quite a luxurious resort located right by the beach, a very private beach at.

The inside of the hotel was lavishly done up, with a spacious lobby, expensive furniture, and white marble floors. 

Checking in only took a few minutes and soon the two men headed up to their hotel room. Eren let out a loud gasp as soon as he stepped through the doorway because their room was honestly one of the most stunning things he had ever seen. 

The room was quite a considerable size with plush black carpeting, dark navy drapes, and large windows that looked out over the private, moonlit beach.

There was a single king sized bed, bigger than any bed Eren had seen before, set against the teal and cream painted walls. 

"Levi.....this is absolutely amazing!!"

"I'm glad you like it, baby. I was told this was one of the best rooms here."

"Fuck, Levi. You're so perfect, you know that? Come here, handsome." Eren flung his arms around Levi's neck and roughly kissed him, incredibly grateful for everything the ravenette had done for him in the past couple of hours.

Levi linked his hands firmly around Eren's hips and, without breaking their heated kiss, guided the brunette back towards the bed, so that Eren fell back against the large silky sheets on the mattress.

Levi wanted to see more of that beautiful tan skin and carefully tugged Eren's shirt off, leaning down to cover the brunette's chest and stomach with gentle kisses as soon as it was bare. Spurred on by his breathy requests for more, Levi trailed hot kisses lower and lower, until he came to the waistband of the brunette's skinny jeans. "Can I take these off, Eren?"

Eren panicked for a moment, embarrassed at the thought of Levi seeing him naked, however the affectionate smile on Levi's face simply reminded him that the ravenette genuinely cared about him. "O-okay, only if you take yours off too."

"Of course, baby." Levi kissed the inside of the brunette's clothed thigh then began unbuttoning the black jeans, slowly tugging the tight material down Eren's long legs. 

There was an immediate change in Eren's behavior as soon as he was left in nothing but boxers. The brunette grew stiff as a board and refused to look up at him. It was obvious that his boyfriend was uncomfortably self conscious about his own body and Levi was determined to make him feel better.

"Eren, relax. You have nothing to worry about with me, okay? I think you look absolutely gorgeous." He sat back against Eren's thighs and pulled his own shirt off, in hopes if making the brunette feel better. His jeans were the next thing to come off and soon he was just as bare as Eren was.

"Holy shit." Eren could feel his face burn as he finally got his first good look at Levi. From all the times they had cuddled together, he had known that the ravenette had a fine body, but he hadn't realized just how fine it was. 

Levi smiled as Eren gently ran a hand over his pecs and abs, the brunette's earlier tension having vanished. When Eren pulled his hand away, he shifted the brunette onto his side for what he was going to do next.

Levi reached over to the bedside table and took the bottle of lotion that had been conveniently placed there, pouring a small amount into his hands.

Eren breath came in shallow gasps as Levi's fingers brushed against his entrance, the lotion cold against his heated skin.

"Is this okay?" Levi got a short nod from Eren and carefully began prepping him, trying to taking care for the brunette's first time with him. 

Eren gave a shaky whimper as Levi's fingers pushed deeper inside of him. He hadn't felt this blissed out in a while and, honestly, would have been fine with the ravenette just finger fucking him to completion.

But before he could say anything, the fingers were removed and he felt something harder and larger press against his entrance. Eren let out a groan and hooked his legs around Levi's hips, trying to pull him inside. "L-Levi....p-please......"

"I'm gonna go slow for our first time." Levi leaned down next to him and placed a gentle kiss against his temple to relax him as he entered the brunette. "Shhh shhh, it's okay. Just breathe and relax. I'm not gonna move until you're ready."

"Its alright, you can move." Eren immediately realized there were a lot of differences between how Jean used to fuck him and how Levi was currently doing him.

Eren's ex used to have the brunette on all fours, face buried in the pillow or mattress as he was taken from behind. 

However, Levi had him on his back and Eren had a wonderful view of the ravenette's loving gaze and strong body moving against his own.

Jean used to be rough and often left dark bruises behind. Levi was nothing but gentle, only leaving soft kisses across Eren's cheeks and lips.

At that moment, Eren learned the difference between fucking and making love. And once again, he was reminded just how much Levi truly cared about him.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter may be a bit of a snore, but I wanted to get something out for you guys. I know a lot of you thought the last chapter felt a bit rushed, so I hope this makes up for it a little.
> 
> Also, if any of you are wondering, English is one of the most common languages spoken in Dubai, next to Arabic, of course.

Eren awoke quite late the next morning, the alarm on the bedside table reading half past eleven. He found that he was unable to fall back asleep and crawled out of bed, unsure on what he was going to do. His eyes landed on the camcorder and he picked it up from the floor, opening it so he could film the ravenette sleeping in the bed. 

"Look at my handsome man. He and I had the most magical time last night. He took such great care of me.....just like always. Fuck, you're perfect, Levi. What did I do to deserve you?" He closed the camcorder before he could say anything else embarrassing and returned it to its spot on the table, leaning down afterwards to kiss Levi's forehead. 

Knowing he'd probably stay awake for the remainder of the morning, he grabbed one of the blankets off the bed and wandered outside onto the balcony, where the sun was already shining high in the sky.

Levi had no idea where Eren was when he finally awoke, almost an hour later, and he momentarily panicked until he saw that the sliding door at the back of their hotel room was open. 

He smiled when he saw Eren sitting in one of the patio chairs, bundled up in a blanket and watching the water down below. He noticed the camcorder was conveniently sitting on the bedside table and slyly began recording his boyfriend with it, unaware that the brunette had done the same thing to him earlier that morning. "It seems there's an angel on my balcony, shining brighter than the brightest star. My beautiful little Eren has been through so much and it makes me so proud to see how strong he is."

Satisfied with his sappy little love confession, he set the camera down and joined his lover out on the patio. "Morning, darling."

"Good morning, babycakes." Eren smiled brightly when he saw Levi was finally awake and he held the blanket open, his grin only widening when the ravenette joined him. "Sorry, I left you. I wanted to see the ocean."

Levi slipped his arms around Eren's slim waist and pulled the brunette into his lap, so that they were sitting chest to back. They sat in a peaceful sort of silence, watching as the waves gently washed onto the sandy shore of the beach.

It was Eren who finally broke the quiet and he let his head drop back against the ravenette's shoulder so he could look up at the man. "Thank you, Levi." 

"For what?"

"For last night. I was really hesitant to give my consent and put my trust in you.....especially remembering the way Jean would treat me in bed. But you ended up being so gentle with me....."

"And I will continue to be gentle, Eren." He didn't know how Jean treated Eren in bed, but judging by the brunette's response, Levi imagined it couldn't have been pleasant. "A physical relationship is something that requires trust and trust goes both ways. If I ever do anything to make you uncomfortable, all you have to do is tell me to stop and I'll stop." 

"I know and that's why I love you." Eren wiggled out of Levi's grasp and turned himself around so that he was facing the ravenette instead. He wrapped his arms tightly around Levi's abdomen and buried his face in the ravenette's neck, taking in the always comforting scent.

"I love you too, Eren. So much more than you realize." He leaned back against the futon cushions with the brunette settled comfortably in his lap. It was only after Eren's stomach began growling that Levi made them get up and go inside. After a quick shower together, they were dressed and headed into the city for a nice lunch.

~

Eren had never been to Dubai before but it seemed Levi had, because the ravenette held his hand as they walked down the streets. They ended up stopping at what appeared to be another hotel and Eren was confused for a moment, until Levi pulled him towards the restaurant, Geales, that lead into it.

"The food's really good here, I promise." As he lead them through the front doors and over to the counter to wait, Eren took a second to look around at the modern steel and wood decor of the restaurant. However, his attention was pulled back to the counter, as young lady cheerfully greeted approached them. 

"Good afternoon, gentleman. Would you like to be seated inside or on the patio?"

Eren couldn't help but blush a little as Levi gave him a questioning stare, leaving the decision entirely up to him. "Well, inside would be fine....please."

She lead them through the restaurant and seated them at a table near an emptier corner of the room, before handing them both menus. "Can I start you two off with some drinks?"

Levi could tell by Eren's expression that the brunette was starting to panic. And that was understandable, being a new and exotic country with absolutely no knowledge about any of it. "If you could just bring us some lemonades, that'd be wonderful."

"Of course. Take your time with the menus and I'll be right back with those drinks."

As soon as the waitress had left, Levi reached across the table and took Eren's hands in his, hoping to calm the panicked brunette. "Hey, relax. Its okay, Eren."

"This is all just so new to me. Its really overwhelming. I'm sorry." Eren was extremely embarrassed over the fact that his anxiety was that obvious. However, Levi didnt make a big deal out of it, like other people often did, and for that, Eren was grateful.

"Stop apologizing, okay? Everything's fine. Take a look at your menu and see what sounds good. If you don't know what something is, ask me."

Once he had gotten a good look at the menu in his hands, Eren had an easy time figuring out what did and didn't sound good. He had settled on ordering some pan fried salmon, while Levi chose to get a seafood risotto. 

Eren had been worried that he wouldn't like any of the food, being that he wasn't used to it, but it honestly ended up being one of the best lunches he had ever had.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao, I know this is another boring chapter and that it probably sucks, but the Dubai mall is HUGE. Its at least 13 million square feet (more than 50 football fields). So I didn't want to write this super long chapter about them wandering around a huge ass mall. 
> 
> I can for sure promise that these next couple of chapter will get better.

After their nice quiet lunch, Eren wanted to do some sight seeing (as well as some shopping) so Levi decided he'd take him to the best spot he could think of. After a quick twenty minute ride from Geales, they were standing outside the entrance to the Dubai Mall.

They had barely even entered the building, and a look of wonder crossed Eren's face, the sight making Levi grin. He knew his curious little boyfriend would enjoy a trip to the world's largest mall. He had certainly enjoyed it when Kenny had brought him for the first time.

"Levi, this is.....INCREDIBLE!!" Eren had never been to a mall so big, let alone ANY building that was so big. He tilted his head back and was shocked to see that there were three other floors lined with stores. He tugged Levi further into the mall, past the food court and stands, wanting to explore every inch of the gigantic mall. "Come on."

They had only walked a couple of feet when Eren pulled him into a nearby store, full of shorts and skirts. He had often been told that he looked good in such clothes, but had never thought about regularly wearing them. "Do you think I'd look good in shorts like these, Levi?"

The ravenette didn't even need to think about it and quickly nodded in agreement. He could already picture Eren wearing a pair of those booty shorts, showing off his long legs, and he found the idea incredibly sexy. "Hell yeah. You'd look smoking hot." 

Eren gave him a sly smile and began looking around the different shelves, quickly finding some that he liked. It was a pair of black booty shorts, however the price on the tag immediately made him put them back.

"Eren, what's wrong? Those looked really nice." He had noticed his boyfriend eyeing them and took them back off the shelf, barely giving the price tag a glance.

"Levi, these are _waaay_ too expensive for me. I'd end up spending all my money on this one pair of shorts."

"Baby, don't worry about the price. If there's something you like, then _I_ will get it for you. A beautiful thing like you deserves beautiful clothes. Here, go try these on."

Eren hesitantly took the shorts from Levi and made his way to the back of the store, where the changing rooms were located. He slipped them on and smoothed the fabric down over his thighs, before stepping outside for the waiting ravenette. "What do you think?"

The shorts were just long enough that they didn't make Eren look skanky, but they made the brunette's already long legs look even longer and Levi momentarily wished he could have those legs wrapped around his head.

"I think you look fucking gorgeous, pardon my French." Levi could see that his words meant a lot to the brunette and he truly meant them. He would honestly find Eren good looking in anything and he wanted this boyfriend to know it. 

~

They ended up stopping at almost every other store, to check out one thing or another. Eren, who wasn't used to spending so much, was shocked at how many bags they ended up with. However, Levi kept telling him not to worry about the cost, that it was his money and he didn't mind spending it on the brunette.

As they were heading back to the entrance of the huge mall they passed by a swimwear store and Levi tugged Eren inside. "Pick out a suit, baby. Cause I was thinking we could go swimming when we get back to our hotel."

Eren nodded and dropped Levi's hand from his, so he could wander off and browse a different section of the store. He grabbed a few suits that he found to be rather cute and brought them to the back to try them on. He ended up liking the second one the most and abandoned the rest of the suits in his changing room, in favor of finding Levi.

"Baby, what do you think of this one?"

Levi finished adjusting the swim trunks that he had tried on and turned around, jaw immediately dropping when he saw the brunette.

Eren was wearing a small black bikini that had red cherries decorating the top and bottom. It went well with the brunette's caramel skin and only accentuated the gorgeous body he had.

"Holy fucking shit." He grabbed Eren's arm and hurriedly dragged him back to the dressing room, locking them both in one of the rooms. 

"Do you not like it?" Eren wasn't quite sure what to make of the ravenette's reaction, as it didn't seem particularly good, and he was quickly regretting trying on a bikini instead of trunks.

"Like it? I fucking love it, Eren. Shit, you're gonna give me a boner in that thing." Without even giving Eren a chance to respond, he pressed their lips together in a rough, possessive kiss and ran his hands down Eren's bare back, letting them rest on those full hips. "Fuck, you're really beautiful. You know that?"

Eren's face flushed a deep red at the sudden compliment and he shyly shook his head. Levi told him all the time how beautiful he was but he wasn't nearly as sure about it as the raven was. "Oh, Levi. You're too sweet."

"Well, I mean it, Eren. So.....could I get a picture of you in that?" He grinned when Eren smacked his chest at the suggestion and held his hands up in defeat. "Alright, alright. If you really don't want me to-"

"You can. Just don't show them to anyone, okay?" He struck a few poses, some quite lewd and embarrassing, and let Levi snap a few pictures, his face the color of a tomato when they has finished. 

"Yeah, I don't plan on it. These pictures will be for me, and me alone. Now, get changed, okay? Then we can pay for this stuff and go back to the hotel."


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a tad shorter than the others, but its more productive. Our boys have a day at the beach.
> 
> Also, just a heads up. If you are going to comment on my stories, thats fine. But please don't leave the same comment in every chapter (you know who you are). I like getting feedback and constructive criticism from you guys, but leaving the same comment on every chapter doesn't tell me shit. Thanks.

Eren readjusted the top on his new bikini and skipped out of the bathroom, letting out a sultry purr when he saw Levi, shirtless and sexy as hell in his black swim trunks. Eren loved those solid abs and wanted nothing more than to place a few hickeys along that pale skin. "Ready to go, tiger?"

Levi glanced up, doing a double take so he could get a better look at his gorgeous boyfriend. The brunette's skin looked darker than normal in their dim hotel room and, paired with the small bikini, the effect was absolutely sinful. He stood up and grabbed the bag they had packed for their day at the beach, holding his hand out for Eren to take.

They left their hotel room and entered the elevator, halfway down to the lobby when the doors reopened. One of the hotel employees stepped in and it was obvious the blond was smitten with Eren. He kept glancing in their direction, eyeing the brunette's bare skin and Levi had to bite back a snarl of jealousy, quickly reminding himself that Eren was his and wouldn't so much as look at another man.

At last, the doors reopened and Levi wrapped an arm around Eren's waist as they walked out, flipping the pervy employee off in the process. Once they had finally exited the hotel and were on their way down the path that lead to the beach, Levi let himself relax and his internal raging jealousy began to die down.

The hotel beach didn't seem to be overly crowded, which Eren immensely appreciated. He hated crowds and people, in general, so the private beach was definitely a plus on their vacation. He dropped their bag underneath a shady spot and began spreading out their towels in the sand. Once that was done, he pulled the bottle of sunblock from their bag and dropped it in Levi's lap. "Hey handsome stranger. Wanna rub some lotion on my shoulders?"

The ravenette's lips curled into a sly smirk and he popped the cap open, pouring some into his palm. "Oh, I don't know. You're such a gorgeous little thing. I think your boyfriend might get jealous."

"Don't you worry about him. I can always offer him some super hot sex to cheer him up." Eren rolled onto his stomach and let Levi straddle his hips, shivering as his boyfriend began rubbing the cold sunblock into his heated skin.

"Oh, you think I could get some of this super hot sex?" After Levi had finished his work with the sunblock, he leaned down and let his lips brush against Eren's ear, running his tongue along the outer shell in a teasing manner. "You look like you know how to have a good time."

"Ask me again later, baby, and I'll see what I can do for you. Now sit the fuck down, honey, cause its your turn to get lotioned up." He snatched the bottle from where it lay in the sand and went straight to work on Levi, groping the raven whenever the opportunity presented itself. "Fuck, Levi. I love how muscular you are. I bet you could bench press me."

"I bet you're right." He took the lotion from Eren and tossed it back in their bag, before leaning over to kiss the brunette. "So, what do you wanna do, baby?"

"I wanna take some selfies with you. Something to remember this day by." He pulled his phone out from the bag and opened the camera, before settling himself in Levi's lap. He smiled as two arms circled around his waist and held his phone out, so he could snap a few pictures of them together. 

Levi waited until Eren had returned his phone to the bag before standing up and scooping the brunette up off the towel. Eren let out a little shriek at the unexpected move and clung tightly to Levi, in fear of being dropped. "I think its time we go cool off, baby."

"No, wait, it's probably gonna be super cold. Please, don't let go. Levi, I'll kill you if you drop me." Eren struggled to wiggle free as his boyfriend began wading out into the water, but it was in vain because Levi's grip on him was much too strong.

"Then you better get ready. I'm putting you down now." That was the only warning Levi gave as he let go and he was lucky that they were in waist deep water, otherwise Eren might have landed quite painfully on his ass, seeing as he didn't believe Levi had been speaking the truth. 

Eren barely had time to take a breath before Levi unexpectedly dropped him and he momentarily panicked as he sank beneath the surface of the water. Not a moment later though, his feet touched the sandy ocean floor and he stood up, thoroughly soaked to the bone. The first thing he did was splash the raven in the face with a small wave of water. "Levi, that was so mean. How could you do that to me?"

"I told you I was putting you down." He gently took Eren's wet face in his hands and placed a soft kiss against those pouting, saltwater stained lips. "I'm sorry, baby."

"Yeah, you better be."

"So we're good?" Levi felt relieved that Eren was genuinely angry with him, but that feeling didn't last long as he was shoved backwards into the water. Unlike Eren though, he didn't manage to hold his breath and came up coughing from the mouthful of salt water he had swallowed.

"Poor baby." To show that he meant his truce, he did what Levi did and gave his still coughing boyfriend an apologetic kiss. " _Now_ we are good."


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things were going too good, so here, have some drama. I know this may feel sudden, but I just wanted something to happen that would bring them closer together in their relationship.

"Hi, mum." Eren had just finished getting dressed, in his new shorts and a shirt that read ‘ **Fancy as fuck** ' and was now lying on the bed in their hotel room Skyping his mom, while waiting for Levi to finish up. "How's your day so far?" 

"I actually can't answer that because I just got up an hour ago. How's your trip been?"

"Its AMAZING. Since we've been here, I've seen and done so much. Including Levi-"

Said ravenette could feel his cheeks burn and he sat down on the bed, snatching the phone away before any explicit details could be spilled. Carla didn't seem to mind though, and had begun laughing at Eren's confession. "Okay, that's enough from you, baby. Hi, Carla."

"Hi, sweetie. So tell me, you're not too rough with him, are you?" She was immensely overjoyed to learn that Levi and her son had finally gotten physical because it meant that Eren loved him enough to trust him with such a thing. And she knew just how hard it was for Eren to give his trust in relationships, given some of his past experiences.

"Of course not. I'm a gentleman, both in public and in bed."

"That's not true, mum." Eren sprawled out across the ravenette's stretched out legs and brought the attention back to himself once more. "He dropped me in the ocean yesterday."

"And I making up for it, by taking you out tonight."

"Considering the troublemaker you are, you probably deserved to be thrown in the ocean, son." Another familiar face appeared on the phone screen alongside Carla's, bringing smiles to both Eren and Levi's faces. "And what's this I hear about a date? Where are you two going?"

"DAD!! Hello!! Levi's taking me out for dinner....I think. He won't tell me, the big meanie."

Levi's plan was for the evening was to take Eren out for a wonderful, expensive dinner, then to one of the nearby clubs for some dancing and light drinks. However, he wasn't going to spoil the surprise, not even with the brunette's parents present. "I'm not telling you because it's a surprise. And he did deserve it, Grisha. He kept groping me yesterday when he was putting sunscreen on me."

Eren's face flushed bright red, from his neck to the tips of his ears, and he quickly shook his head in denial. "I would _never_ do such a thing. Where's your proof, Levi?"

"Sweetheart, your ears are red. That's proof enough." Flustered at being caught so easily by his parents, Eren buried his face in Levi's chest, content to stay there until the color had faded from his cheeks.

Levi slid his arm out from where Eren was laying on it and winced when he saw the time on his watch. If they didn't leave soon, they were going to be late and miss the check in. "Hey, as much as I'd love to talk the night away with you and your parents, we have reservations, baby."

"You two, go on. We can talk more tomorrow. Have fun."

"And use protection." Grisha smirked as the color returned to his son's cheeks and he bid them one last farewell, before hanging up.

Levi slipped Eren's phone into his jeans, knowing the pockets on the brunette's shorts were absolutely useless, and helped Eren off the bed. "Come on, baby. Let's have some fun tonight."

~

Several hours later, the sun began rising and the harsh morning light was what woke Eren up. With great effort, he rolled over in bed and attempted to kick the itchy blankets off of himself, his hips and lower back aching with the sudden movements and only further reminding him of the pleasurable rough fuck he and Levi had had the night before. Other than their lewd activities, he honestly didn't remember much of the previous night.....simply that, after a nice dinner, he and Levi had ended up at a club and had ordered several rounds of drinks. At some point they had to have gone back to the hotel, cause Eren could _definitely_ remember being fucked into the mattress like it was their last day together. Pulling his mind back into focus, he tried to kick the covers off once more, but despite his best efforts, they simply settled back down on his legs. Sighing in agitation, Eren gingerly pushed himself into a sitting position and let out a shocked gasp as soon as his eyes opened; it wasn't blankets that were covering his legs, but the scratchy lace of a long white wedding dress. Even without having a clear memory of the previous night, Eren had a pretty good idea of what had probably happened. "Levi....Levi, wake up!!"

The half naked ravenette mumbled out a response and rolled over to look at Eren, his tired gaze immediately sharpening when he saw the dress. The brunette looked absolutely gorgeous in the dress, but it probably wasn't a good sign for them, especially since Levi could only remember a fraction of their intoxicated night together. From what he remembered, they drank quite a bit and it seemed alcoholic drinks weren't a blessing to either of their memories at the moment. "Holy shit, why the fuck are you wearing a wedding gown?!"

No matter how hard Eren tried, he couldn't recall any specific details....just drinks, loud music, a long boring speech, and monochrome clothes. "I think....I think we got married....?"

"Oh fuck, we couldn't have.....I don't.....sh-shit-" Suddenly feeling incredibly nauseous, Levi jumped out of the bed and bolted towards the bathroom. The door had just barely slammed shut and, a moment later, Eren could hear the sound of his boyfriend getting sick.

Once he was alone in the bedroom, the brunette set to work on trying to pull the snug wedding dress off. It took several minutes of struggling, but he finally managed to wiggle out of the tight, lacy material and began searching for other clothes to wear. He ended up passing by the dresser mirror and his eyes widened at all the bruises and hickeys that littered his tan skin. It seemed Levi hadn't been in the mood to show any mercy and took his chance to mark up Eren's previously unblemished skin.

Eren spotted some dark dress pants that had been tossed onto a nearby chair, most likely Levi's from the night before, and tore himself away from the mirror to retrieve them.

As he picked them up, a slip of paper fluttered to the floor and, once he was dressed, he bent down to get a better look at it. It had a short message and a phone number written on it.

_Call me.  
(240) 751-2550_

Eren was terrified that it would the number of some sketchy drug dealer or maybe one of the flirty dancers from the club, but he finally dialed it and somebody picked up after only a few rings.

"H-hello? Who is this?"

"This is Nicolas Murr. Who is calling?"

"I'm....ummm....Eren Jaeger." Eren anxiously nibbled on his bottom lip as he waited for the man on the other end to say something.

"Oh, I could never forget such unique last name. You and that Levi man came in to get married last night."

"Yeah well, we were wondering if we could maybe get unmarried."

"That would be impossible."

"W-what...? What do you mean? Are we like married for life or something?"

Nicolas let out a soft chuckle that somewhat eased Eren's high-strung nerves. "It'd be impossible because I never married you two. After paying for a private ceremony, you two began making out halfway through it and never finished your vows. Since you had already paid and didn't fuss for the money back, I just let you two depart."

Eren felt his face flush bright red because they _would_ be the ones to do that. However, he was extremely relieved to know their marriage wasn't official. "Oh my god. Thank you so much. Look, I've got to go. Levi will want to hear this. Thanks again for leaving your number."

"Of course. But next time you get married, make you sure you are sober for it."

"Oh yes, yes. I absolutely will." Eren ended the call and sat back against the pillows, waiting for Levi to come out of the bathroom.

Eventually the door opened and Levi stumbled out, looking much better than when he'd gone in. "Eren, I've been thinking about this whole marriage situation and-"

"We didn't get married. The pastor left his number and I called. He said we never finished the ceremony so it isn't official. There's no need to worry."

Levi couldn't understand how Eren was so calm about this whole thing or why he seemed so damn relieved. Being married to each other wouldn't have been _that_ bad. "This is still serious, Eren. We need to talk about this.....about _us_. Is marriage something that you would want?" 

Eren wanted to say yes so desperately because he truly loved the ravenette with all his heart. However, he was immediately brought back to his first wedding day, when Jean had left him at the altar, and it left him with an immensely overwhelming feeling of uneasiness. "Levi....I....."

Levi swore he felt his heart physically shatter at the brunette's hesitant response. That basically told him everything he needed to know, that Eren wasn't looking for something serious and committal after all. "I see. Well, its nice to know you fucking care."

"No, its not what you think, okay?! I just....I need time to think about it. Can we just drop it, please?"

"NO. We can't, Eren. There's really nothing to think about. Either you want to spend your life with me or you don't and this has just been a meaningless fling." This full blown argument probably wasn't going to get them anywhere and their shouting was only making Levi's headache worse, but he wanted to know why Eren was trying so hard to avoid marrying him.

"I'm scared, okay?!"

"Scared of what?" Levi knew that people got nervous about marriage, in fact he was nervous at the thought of even proposing, but he had never heard of people who were genuinely scared of getting married.

"I'M SCARED THAT YOU'LL PROPOSE TO ME, AND WE'LL PLAN EVERYTHING OUT, AND THEN YOU'LL JUST LEAVE ME THERE AT THE ALTAR BY MYSELF." Suddenly lacking any energy to function properly, Eren sank to the soft carpeting and buried his face in his hands. Hot shameful tears began to flow freely as memories of that horrible day flashed through his mind, the pain and humiliation he had felt then washing over him once more. "Its what Jean did to me, on our wedding day, and I just....I don't want you to do that to me, too."

Levi's eyes widened in shock as he heard the brunette's confession for the first time. He had known that they had been dating and Jean had cheated on him, but he had _never_ been told that Eren used to be engaged to the horse-faced bastard. Levi felt his anger quickly fade as he understood why his boyfriend was so hesitant at the thought of marriage. "Shit. Eren, baby...."

"J-just go away, Levi. Leave m-me alone." Eren had been feeling pretty sure of himself until their argument had started and now, with painful past memories resurfacing, he wanted nothing more than to be left alone so he could cry his heart out in peace.

Levi felt a bitter wave of regret crash over him as he realized how badly he had fucked up. The only other time that he had ever felt so terrible was when Eren had been in the hospital after trying to commit suicide. But now the guilt Levi felt was a thousand times worse than that because he had pushed Eren too far..... _he_ was the reason Eren was now crying. He knelt down on the floor and gently held the brunette against his chest, hoping his boyfriend's tears would begin to subside. "Eren, baby. I'm so sorry. I had no idea that had happened to you. But I will never do that to you, I promise. I love you too much."

Eren knew the raven meant every word, but he couldn't just shake his irrational fear off and continued to let out loud, heart-wrenching cries. He felt Levi's arms tighten around him and lips press against the top of his head, bringing a small ray of happiness in amidst all his currently chaotic emotions. "I know, Levi, and I love you too."


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys can still submit comments (and I'd really appreciate it), but I think I'll just have to "approve" them now before they can be posted because of that spamming anti.

As soon as Carla answered the call on Skype and saw how unhappy Levi looked, she knew something was up. "Levi, what's wrong?"

"Fuck, a lot is wrong. After dinner last night, I took Eren to a nightclub, which turned out to be fucking disastrous. We ended up getting completely shitfaced and almost got married!! Then we fucking fought about it this morning and I caused him to have a fucking breakdown. I made him cry, Carla."

Carla winced both for how many times Levi had just cursed and for the pitiful story she had just been told. "What happened, sweetie?"

"Eren wouldn't answer me when I asked him if he'd ever want to get married and I kept fucking pushing. To say the least, I found out about his failure of a wedding day."

Her son didn't seem to be anywhere nearby, as far as Carla could tell, and she immediately began worrying about him. "Where's Eren?" 

"He locked himself in the bathroom to take a hot bath. After this shitty morning, I really don't blame him."

"Do you think you can get him to come out....so I can talk to him?"

"I'll be right back. I'll apologize in advance, if he doesn't come out." Levi dropped the phone on the bed and made his way over to the bathroom door, hesitating only for a moment before softly knocking. "Eren, baby. Your mom is on Skype and wants to know if you'll come out."

Only silence greeted the ravenette and he was beginning to worry that Eren had drowned himself in the tub, when a soft voice spoke up. "I'll be out in a minute."

"Take as much time as you need, darling." He reclaimed his spot on the bed and only had to wait a couple minutes for the bathroom door to finally open. The brunette slowly shuffled out and hesitantly sat down on the edge bed, never once meeting Levi's eyes. "Here, baby."

Eren took the phone from him and shyly looked up at the ravenette, desperately wanting to ask to for privacy, but too afraid to speak up.

Levi could tell that Eren was at least slightly uncomfortable with him being right there so, with a heavy heart, he pushed himself up off the bed. He gathered a few clothes and placed a kiss on Eren's forehead, before heading towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower. Just knock on the door if you need something, Eren."

It was only once the door had shut and the shower started, that Eren finally focused on the phone screen in front of him. Through all of that, his mother had been patiently waiting and when he looked at her, she gave him a gentle smile. 

"Hi, sweetheart. I heard the last few hours have been quite eventful for you." 

"Oh, mom. I messed up big time. I flipped out at Levi when he asked about marriage and now he's probably pissed at me."

"Honey, he's not mad at you. He's just upset because he made you cry. He feels bad about it, but doesn't know how to tell you."

Eren wiped away the tears that had begun to form in his eyes, immediately feeling relieved that Levi wasn't angry with him after all. He knew he had overreacted about the situation once again and was glad that Levi wasn't annoyed over what a drama queen he always was.

"Listen, Eren. I know things may seem awkward between you, but it's only because neither of you are very good at communicating how you feel. You just need to sit down and talk things out with each other. Communication is key in relationships, Eren."

Eren let out an exhausted sigh at the all too familiar quote and tiredly ran his hand through his already mussed up hair. His parents had often told him that when he'd been with Jean and, while it obviously hadn't worked in his previous relationship, he knew communication would be an important factor in this relationship with Levi. After all, the ravenette had been the one to tell him that their relationship was built on trust and it was something that was required from both partners. "Listen, mom. Levi will probably be getting out of the shower soon, so I'm gonna let you go."

After exchanging farewells with his mother and hanging up, Eren plugged his phone in to charge and laid down for a nap. He found he was unable to fall asleep, too plagued with uneasiness to rest, and eventually he heard the bathroom door reopen.

The ravenette dropped his dirty clothes in the basket to be brought down to the laundry room later and grabbed his own phone off the desk, before heading to their bed to finally relax.

"Hey....Levi....?"

The ravenette immediately looked away from his phone screen when he heard Eren's soft voice, hearing it for the first time since their fight that morning. "Yes, baby?"

"Could you maybe lay with me for a while and cuddle?"

"Of course." He placed his phone down on the bedside table, completely abandoning it, and laid down next to him, wrapping an arm around the brunette's slim waist. He was absolutely thrilled that Eren wanted to be closely held by him and gently pulled his boyfriend closer. 

"I'm sorry for overreacting this morning, babycakes. I know I do it a lot."

"Don't apologize, Eren. You have absolutely nothing to apologize for." Levi hated that Eren constantly felt like he had to apologize over everything, even when he hadn't done anything wrong. "I should be the one apologizing to you. I shouldn't have pushed you so far. I feel horrible about making you cry so hard. I'm sorry, baby."

Now that things between them had mostly been sorted out, Eren felt much more at peace, both with himself and with Levi. He wiggled out of his boyfriend's grip and rolled over in bed so that he was facing the ravenette, unexpectedly placing a kiss on those parted lips. "Levi, I just want you to know that I _do_ want to marry you. I just....I'm not quite ready yet."

"And that's okay, Eren. We don't have talk anymore about it until you are comfortable and ready with the topic. For the record, though, I'm hoping you'll wear a wedding gown for our ceremony. Cause, damn, you are sexy as fuck, baby." He couldn't help but grin as Eren's cheeks turned a lovely crimson color and he leaned forward to return the kiss that the brunette had given him just minutes ago.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so I've caught a cold and that was why this took so long. I just haven't been feeling good enough to write, but I will try to get another chapter out soon though.
> 
> Also, I was originally gonna make a couple more chapters that took place in Dubai, but (due to my sickness and lack of motivation) decided to just end their vacation a little early.
> 
> On a final note, I know a lot of people on wattpad had wanted to see Jean get the shitty end of the stick, so he does indirectly. Sorry if it seems a little rushed.

After another long and adventurous week in Dubai, the couple finally returned home to Trost and spent the next couple of days unwinding and unpacking. By Monday, things had returned to normal and, as usual, Levi got up early to get ready to work.

It was around noon when Eren finally awoke from of his deep sleep, feel much more energized than he had the past couple of days. He stumbled out of bed and, after using the bathroom, headed downstairs to get some food. He found a covered plate of French toast sitting in the fridge with a cute little note on top of the saran wrap.

**I'm sorry for not waking you, baby, but you looked awfully tired. However, I did save some breakfast for you. All you have to do is heat it up. I'll see you in the evening when I get home.  
Levi**

Once his breakfast had been warmed up and the note stashed in his pocket, he took his food into the living room so he could get caught up on some of the shows he'd missed. He must have dozed off at some point because when he finally sat up, an entirely different show was playing on the TV and Eren was sure that he hadn't picked it.

Deciding to finally be productive, he washed the dirty dishes and put them away, then wiped the kitchen counters down. He had just finished tossing out the garbage mail and was headed back to the living room, when he noticed the light on the answering machine was blinking. As he approached the small machine, a strange sense of dread filled him and he hesitantly hit the play button, immediately wishing he hadn't.

"Hey, Eren. It's Mikasa. I was gonna call your cell, but didn't want to ruin your last few days in Dubai. Jean was found dead Sunday morning and police aren't sure if it was an accident or suicide......" 

Eren wasn't sure what the rest of the message was about because his hearing seemed to vanish, as did all his strength. He shakily collapsed to the ground as hot tears began rolling down his cheeks and he sobbed into his hands, desperately wanting to believe that this had just been a terrible mistake and that Jean was absolutely fine. However, he knew Mikasa would never prank him with something so serious.

~

When Levi came home from work, he found Eren kneeling on the floor and sobbing like he was dying, which instantly had the ravenette worried. He dropped his stuff on the floor and rushed over to the crying brunette, checking him over for any injuries. However, he couldn't find anything physically wrong with his boyfriend, which only left him more confused. "Eren, what's wrong, baby?"

"J-Jean is dead." He flung himself into Levi's arms and sobbed into the ravenette's shirt, feeling only slightly better when he felt those strong arms wrap firmly around his waist. 

"What.....what are you talking about?" He still wasn't quite sure what Eren was talking about and was wondering if the brunette had been drinking.

"Mikasa c-called while we were away and s-said Jean was found dead."

Levi scooped Eren up off the hard floor and carried him into the living room, carefully placing him on the couch. Leaving to stand in the doorway, the raven pulled out his phone and dialed the first person he could think of. "Hello, Carla? Listen, Eren won't stop crying. He said something about Jean being dead. Do you know anything about that?"

Judging by the tired sigh she let out, Levi guessed that she knew quite a bit about what happened. "Four days ago, Jean's jeep was found submerged in Trost river. The coroner said that he had been extremely intoxicated and had to have driven off the bridge."

"Oh shit." Levi didn't know what else he was supposed to say. Sure he hadn't liked Jean one bit, with all the trouble he had caused them, but he would never have wished death upon him. "What should I do about Eren?"

"Make him eat dinner and give him some Silenor to take afterwards, two should work. They'll help him sleep. If he seems any worse tomorrow, bring him home to us."

Now having some idea of how to deal with his grieving boyfriend, he ended the call and joined Eren on the couch. The brunette was incredibly pale and was trembling slightly, no doubt still in shock over the sudden unexpected news of his ex. "Hey, darling. How are you holding up?"

Eren curled up against Levi and wrapped his arms tightly around the ravenette's waist, as he thought about his ex once more. Jean may not have been a good boyfriend, but he was Eren's first and that was what made the pain all the worse. His flow of tears was literally endless, at the moment, and his chest was physically aching with pain, making it hard to breathe properly. "Everything hurts, Levi. It hurts so fucking much."

"I know, baby. But it'll be okay, I promise. I'm here for you and will be here to support you every step of the way." He gently tugged on Eren's sleeve, helping him off the couch, and pulled him in the direction of the kitchen. "Let's get you some dinner, okay?"

Knowing Eren probably wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed, Levi just boiled up some pasta in Alfredo sauce. He momentarily left to search for Eren's meds, finding them in the bathroom, and brought two back for for the brunette to take with his water. Though it was clearly obvious that the brunette had lost his appetite, he still ate everything, which made Levi crack a smile. He didn't bother washing the dishes after their meal, just dropping them in the sink, and instead headed upstairs to turn in early for the night.

Eren flopped down under the covers and curled up against the ravenette's firm body, yawning as the sleep meds began kicking in. He felt Levi's arms tighten around his waist and was incredibly thankful to have someone to comfort him during this rough time. "Thanks, baby. I really appreciate everything you've done for me. You're the best, Levi."  

"Of course. I'm here for you, Eren, okay?" The only response he got was a sleepy kiss on the lips and he affectionately ran his knuckles over Eren's cheeks, grinning as the brunette let out another yawn. "Get some rest and tomorrow we'll go see your parents."


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I don't know what the hell was up with wattpad last night. My story had just randomly been deleted and I couldn't find it, but when I checked back in the app, before I went to bed last night, my entire story had been returned to my draft list??? It was really weird, but I have learned my lesson. I got a new writing app last night (Writer+) so I could back all my fanfics up offline.
> 
> Anyways, here's chapter 24. It had taken me FOREVER to originally write this and I had had most of it done last night, but wattpad apparently didn't save the last couple paragraphs I had written. So I had to rewrite a new ending for this chapter and here's what came from it. Also, I finally brought Armin back, poor blond coconut.

Eren's grief seemed to triple overnight and the next morning, he almost refused to get out of bed, only crawling out when Levi mentioned going over to his parents. It was obvious that the brunette's mood clearly wasn't going to improve, if his behavior on the ride over was any indication. Eren's responses were short and irritated, occasionally sounding more on the tearful side.

As much as he loved his boyfriend, Levi was extremely glad when they pulled up to the curb of the Jaeger house. He wasn't sure just how much longer he could have endured the brunette's terseness.

The minute they stepped into the house, Carla pulled both them into a tight hug and kissed the tops of their heads several times. "Good morning, babies. How are you two doing today?"

"Not good, but we're pulling through." Levi took Eren's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, before following Carla into the kitchen, where the smell of breakfast greeted them.

"I bet you two are hungry, aren't you? I made a ton of food so eat as much as you'd like."

"Are you trying to make me fat, mum?" It was the first time that morning, that Levi had heard Eren sound even close to being happy and it eased his nerves a little.

"You hush your mouth." Carla sat two plates of pancakes down on the table before tugging at Eren's ear, causing the brunette to let out a weak giggle. "You couldn't get fat even if you wanted to."

Levi thought their breakfast had been going rather nicely, but Eren's mood seemed to plummet once more as he grew tired of socializing and, halfway through the meal, he excused himself and stumbled away in the direction of the bathroom.

As soon as he heard the door shut, Levi let his head drop into his hands and let out a tired sigh. He had seen the tears in Eren's eyes as he left the room and it made his heart ache to no end. "I wish I could make him feel better."

"It'll be alright, sweetie." Carla knew how hard this was for Eren, but she could only imagine the pain that Levi was going through. "Give him some time and he'll bounce right back."

"When Carla? When will that be? Fuck, I just want to see him happy again."

Their conversation abruptly ended as the bathroom door opened and Eren came back down the hall, eyes looking slightly red and puffy as he entered the room. "I....I'm sorry, Levi."

"Hey, baby. Look at me." Levi stood up and gently took Eren's chin in his hand, forcing him to look up. The brunette gave him a weak smile, but he wasn't fooled by it. "Eren, you don't have to be sorry. I know you're going through a rough time. But I want you to know that I love you and I'm here for you, so you don't have to leave the room every time you need to cry. Okay?"

Eren flung his arms around the ravenette's shoulders in a tight hug, feeling much better when the embrace was returned. He hadn't wanted to burden Levi with his grief, knowing that it may last awhile. But, once again, his wonderful boyfriend had proven that he would be there for support no matter what Eren's mood was.

They both looked up as the doorbell rang and Eren reluctantly pushed past him, to go send whoever it was away. He may have been in a much better mood than he was earlier that morning, but he still didn't want to socialize with other people. He opened the door with a scowl on his face, however it immediately melted away and was replaced by a huge grin. "Ohmygod. Armin, Mikasa!!"

Eren threw himself forward, wrapping his arms tightly around the two. It had been quite a while since he'd seen Mikasa, and even longer since he'd seen his blond friend. "Come in, guys. Take a seat and I'll make some tea."

Having been to the Jaeger house thousands of times while growing up, they followed Eren to the living room, but Armin hesitated when they reached the doorway. There was an unfamiliar raven haired man sitting on the couch, that Armin felt he probably should have known. "Eren.....who is that?"

"WHAT?! Don't you remember Levi?" 

"Umm....not really. Sorry. I've been gone for quite some time."

"Okay, so remember that day that you guys came over to help me get ready for that date and my hands were hurt?" When the blond slowly nodded his head, somewhat recalling that specific night, Eren wildly gestured towards Levi. "Well, Levi was the hot date that picked me up."

Now having some clue as to the mystery man, he joined both Mikasa and Levi on the couch. "Oh, well it's nice to meet you....again, Levi." 

As soon as Eren left to get their drinks, Levi curiously eyed the little blond. He had seen Mikasa several times, but could only remember meeting Armin maybe once when he and Eren had started dating. "So, blond coconut, where have you been this entire time?"

"Ughh, of course Eren would tell you that nickname. Anyways, at the beginning of last month, I had applied for a marine biology internship at Marley. And out of 40 other people, I was the one they chose."

"Wow, that's incredible. Congratulations." 

"Yeah, that's amazing, Armin." Being the closest in proximity him, Mikasa playfully ruffled his blond hair and laughed when he swatted her hand away.

Despite how excited he had originally seemed about the subject, a frown quickly replaced Armin's smile and he dolefully shook his head. "Its not as glamorous as it seems. I've missed a lot during that time. Like Eren trying to commit suicide, you and him apparently going to Dubai, and now Jean's death. How's Eren doing, Levi? Is he holding up okay?"

"You both know how he gets. Its definitely been a struggle, especially with him trying to hide his pain from me, but he's coping."

"Take care of him, okay? Mika and I obviously won't always be able to and Lord knows he needs _someone_ to." 

Eren's voice could be heard as the humming brunette approached the living room with everyone's drinks and Armin took that chance to change the subject to something much more cheerful, keeping their discussion about Eren a secret from said brunette. "So Eren, I heard Levi stole you away to Dubai. What was that like?"

"Oooh honey. You sip your tea and I'll tell you all about it."


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally back, guys, and I'm am extremely sorry for my ridiculously long absence. This has just NOT been my week at all. I've been sick for a number of days, I was in pain yesterday, and I'm still in pain in a different spot tonight. I've really got to see a fucking doctor. Anyways, I've got some ideas for the next few chapters so we'll just see how that goes. Once again, I thank you guys for being so patient and supportive the entire time. I can't tell you how much it means to me.

Eren stared down at the box in his lap, contemplating whether to open it or leave it be where it sat on the floor in front of him. Mikasa and Armin had brought it by earlier that morning and Eren still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with it.

"Hey, baby. What's wrong?" Judging by the way the brunette jumped, he hadn't been expecting Levi to walk into his bedroom anytime soon. Levi had planned to announce the date of Jean's funeral to his boyfriend, having just learned it himself, but that might have to wait until they'd dealt with the contents of the box Eren was holding.

"Oh...uhh...nothing. I just....I'm scared to open this. Armin said it came from Jean's house and I don't even know what's in it."

Levi knelt down on the floor next to him and gently took the box from him, setting it down on the carpet. "How about we open it together?" 

"Yeah, okay." Eren swallowed nervously as Levi ripped the tape on the box and hesitantly peered into it, face flushing red at the contents.

Levi was amazed at how many photographs of Jean and Eren were in the box. There had to be hundreds of them and in all of them, there was a blinding smile on the brunette's face. To Levi, that alone made the pictures worth keeping. He would have said something about the cute smile, but Eren looked embarrassed enough as it was, so he kept his mouth shut. At the bottom of the box, there was an envelope addressed to Eren, which Levi picked up and handed off to said brunette. 

With shaking hands, Eren delicately turned the envelope over and slowly pulled its contents out, which turned out to be quite a lengthy letter. He recognized Jean's small, loopy handwriting and carefully began to read through it. 

**Eren, my beautiful boy.  
If you're reading this, it means that I've taken my own life because I've lost everything that's important to me. I know I fucked up badly with you and that is what hurts me the most. You are such a wonderful, energetic thing and I can't believe that I let you get away.**

**I know I should never have cheated on you with Marco, but I guess he reminds me a lot of you. A you without the commitment of marriage. Pretty fucked up, I know.**

**I don't blame you for wrecking my car, either. After the shit I put you through, I definitely deserved it. I would also like to apologize for kissing Levi, as it was the first thing that came to mind when I was avenging my car.**

**For some reason, after all that and getting my ass beat by both Levi and Mikasa, I thought I could still win you back, but then I heard that you were in Dubai with Levi. Dubai, of all places. I remember when we were in college and would talk about traveling to new and exotic places together. That will never happen now though, since I blew my chances.**

**I realize now that you are truly happy with Levi and I never should have tried to get in the way of your happiness, Eren. I'm truly sorry for all the pain and troubles and tears that I may have caused you and Levi.**

**Just know that no matter what happens in your life, I will forever love you and hope that you and Levi have the best of luck. Goodbye, Eren.**

Eren could feel his eyes watering at the mushy letter, but he wasn't upset as he had been throughout the last week. He realized that he was more at peace than he had been in days, this letter only solidifying that feeling. Jean had wanted to make amends to the people he had hurt in his miserable life and Eren was at the top of that list, reminding him of the strong love he'd once had for his ex.

"Hey, Eren......are you alright?" Levi had expected a lot of tears from his boyfriend and this silence was very unsettling to him. He was surprised when Eren looked up at him with clear eyes and a bright smile.

"I'm fine, baby. Thanks." When an arm was draped over his shoulder, Eren scooted closer and leaned into the ravenette's embrace, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I always thought Jean didn't care, but I guess he never stopped loving me. Do you think he's happy now, Levi?"

"I'm sure he is, darling." As much as he despised Eren's prick of an ex, he knew the brunette had loved him and didn't want to respond with answer that left him looking like a bastard. "You know, we could get a scrapbook so you can put all these photos in it."

"Levi, I'd love that." He shuffled through a couple of pictures until he came to one where he had icing on his cheek and Jean was licking it off, when they'd been trying to make a cake for Armin's birthday. His relationship with his ex may not have ended very well, but that didn't make the time they'd spent together any less precious. 

.

It was an incredibly bad day to hold a funeral, the winds merciless and the rain coming in a never ending downpour. In a way though, it fit the somber moods of all the people who were gathered around Jean Kirschtein's grave.

Eren shivered against the biting cold and began regretting his decision to not wear a thicker jacket over his suit, originally thinking that it wouldn't be quite so cold and that he'd be fine. The ravenette must have noticed his trembling because Levi wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him closer, angling the umbrella so that it shielded both of them from the unrelenting rain. Leaning further into his boyfriend's embrace, he found the gesture to be both incredibly reassuring and romantic.

Levi could feel Eren's grip on his arm tighten as the coffin was lowered into the ground and he turned his head so that he could press a comforting kiss against those damp bangs. 

When they finally began shoveling dirt over the coffin, he took Eren's hand and began leading him back towards the car, wanting to get them both away from the dreary cemetery and back to their comfortable home as soon as possible. "Come on, baby. Let's go home and get warmed up."


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what the heck was wrong with Ao3 earlier, but the page wouldn't come up at all for some reason, even after refreshing. Then when I finally come back on and see that the site has begun working again, they had forcibly logged me out. I'm just thankful the site is up and work in again.

Levi glanced up from the book he was reading as he heard Eren let out another lengthy and morose sigh, that having been the fourth one in the last hour. He set his book down on the nearby coffee table and looked up to find the brunette scrolling through something on his phone, looking rather glum, though Levi was sure he wasn't mindful of the sighs that were escaping him. "Eren, darling. What's the matter?"

Said brunette curiously glanced up from his phone, unaware that he'd even been doing anything to disturb Levi's concentration. He slowly shook his head, wondering where the sudden question had come from and whether he wanted to answer it, however the concerned squint he received only proved that Levi wasn't going to let this go anytime soon.

"Eren, something's obviously bothering you. Come over here and tell me what's worrying your pretty little head."

Eren abandoned his phone in favor of crawling into the raven's lap, taking a moment to just enjoy the intimacy between them, before finally spilling what was troubling him so terribly. "Nothing is really wrong, but I just.....I don't know. I guess I've just been feeling so useless lately. What am I even doing with my life anymore?" 

Jean's funeral had been held nearly a month ago and, since then, Eren had done nothing exceptionally important, making him realize that his life had recently consisted of a whole lot of nothing. 

"Look at me, baby. You are _not_ useless and the last thing I want is you thinking you are." Despite the fact that he had an incredibly well paying job, Levi could definitely relate to the torment of not feeling successful in life, as that was exactly how he had felt before he'd met Eren. He had all the money he could ever wish for or even need, but the life he had lived seemed like it'd be indefinitely lonely. "Trust me, you just need something to do during the day, something that will give to that sense of achievement that you are looking for."

~

The raven's words remained stuck in Eren's mind the entire weekend and, as soon as Monday rolled around, he'd begun the hunt for an appealing job that was fairly local. It took him several long hours and hundreds of Google searches, but he finally narrowed it down to three places that were hiring: a bookstore, a coffee shop, and an animal shelter.

The bookstore and animal shelter jobs were incredibly appealing to Eren, considering the fact that they were both 7 to 5 shifts, which meant he'd get to see Levi before he departed for work and right as he was returning home. 

However, the coffee shop job also had its perks, being the one that had then highest pay, if only slightly higher than the other two, and would give him the weekends off, as well as discounts; the only downside to working at the coffee shop would be him working the night shift for who knows how long and because Eren quite enjoyed sleeping, that was something that instantly had him crossing it off his list. 

In the end, he couldn't force himself to decide between the two jobs and simply applied to both of them, figuring he'd just accept whoever he got a call from first and turn down the other offer if and when it came to it. 

Apparently the coffee store was quite a popular choice for many applicants because, just two days later, Eren received a polite email from the manager of the store, that cordially turned his application down, saying he _"just wasn't what they were looking for"_.

Several more days went by, without any contact from the pet shelter, and Eren was starting to lose hope that he'd ever get a response, dreading the possibility that he'd have to do some more online job hunting. However, that Thursday evening, as Eren was making dinner for when Levi finally returned from work, the phone in the living room began to shrilly ring.

Figuring he should be courteous and actually answer whoever it was, Eren abandoned his prep work at the kitchen counter and padded out into the living room, slowly picking up the phone and answering it. "Hello, this is the Ackerman residence. Who am I speaking with?"

"This is Brenda Liu of the Forget Me Not animal shelter. I am looking for an Eren Jaeger, who recently applied to our organization."

"That's me! I'm Eren Jaeger!! Did I get the job?!" He knew he probably shouldn't have sounded so excited or desperate, especially considering she hadn't said anything yet and there was still the possibility of her rejecting him, but he had always been the hopeful sort. 

"Not yet, no. Our company's advisors will be coming over tomorrow around 2 in the afternoon, so I'd like you to around then. Because our advisors always want to meet the employees we are hiring, we would interview you around them just so can see what kind of person you are, what priorities you have, and so on...."

"Oh my god. Thank you so much. Even just getting an interview is good news to me." As soon as Eren had ended the call, he rushed to put a reminder in his phone for the following day, not wanting to risk being late and jeopardizing this possible job opportunity.

~

Much too quickly, Friday had arrived, not only marking the much anticipated end of the week, but also the day of Eren's big interview. Too anxious to actually sleep in, he'd gotten up just earlier that morning to make Levi breakfast and kiss him goodbye as he headed out the door, before eating an early meal himself. He then rushed off to the bathroom for a hot shower and a quick trim to his unkempt fringe, heading back to their bedroom afterwards, to decide on what he was going to wear that day: a pair of black jeans and one of Levi's casual shirts.

Not wanting to be late for his interview or spill something on his (and Levi's) clothes by accident, he decided he'd skip out on lunch and pick up something to eat afterwards. He arrived at the shelter in less than ten minutes and the second he walked through the door of the shelter, he was greeted by a young blonde with bright teal eyes.

"Come right this way and I'll just take you right where you need to be." She lead him through the front of the shelter, which was simply a store with shelves and shelves of pet supplies, leaving Eren to guess that the actual shelter housing the animals was at the back of the building. "Now, just a heads up, but the financial advisor can be a bit intimidating. He just wants to make sure we're hiring the right type of person for this job. You understand, right dear?"

He never got a chance to answer her question because they had arrived at his interview room, before he could even open his mouth, and he was met with a familiar pair of eyes, grey widening when they locked with emerald. "Levi...."

"Eren, baby. What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's fine. I....I'm here for the interview. What about you?"

"I'm the one sitting in on your interview." The raven was equal parts stunned and amused by this unexpected turn of events, never having suspected for a moment that Eren would be the one who had applied for this job. Levi had originally wanted to interview the applicant himself, seeing as the inquirer had not only taken veterinary courses in college, but had also wracked up quite an impressive number of volunteer hours here and there. "Step inside and take a seat, Mr Jaeger, so we may get started."

Eren knew that just because he was Levi's boyfriend didn't give him any special privileges over anyone else who had applied and, remaining as professional as possible, stepped inside the small lounge to take a seat at the round table at the center of the room. 

Once Levi had taken a seat, the blonde woman from earlier joined him, setting a manila folder on the table and opening it to reveal the resume Eren had sent in. "So, Mr Jaeger, I believe to most obvious question to be asked is why do you want to work here?"

"That's easy. I really love animals. Growing up, my family owned two dogs, both happened to be two of my best friends. Aside from that, I know not every one of the animals at this shelter will always get adopted and, if I work here and they don't get adopted, then I can at least take care of them as best as possibly."

She immediately nodded in approval at that answer, knowing that some people didn't give a damn about the animals and simply applied to earn money. "And what makes you think you're qualified to work here?"

"When I was in college, I took several veterinarian classes, which allowed me to take care of animals in my dorm over weekends and gave me the opportunity to volunteer at a number of animal shelters."

"I saw that on your resume and I must say, I am extremely impressed. That's more than most people who apply here have on theirs. If you don't mind, just a few more questions. Mr Ackerman, if you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"If you don't mind, Brenda, I do have a few. What do you think you're going to struggle with the most on this job?"

"Well, I know there are some days that can be extremely difficult, whether it be lack of sleep or a bad mood." Eren honestly didn't think there'd be anything that challenging, as he'd easily managed with cleaning, medical care, and health of most animals he'd ever been handed. "However, I do think the most difficult thing might be dealing with some of the animals. I know its likely that not all of them will be passive and cooperative, especially if they've had bad homes or been in difficult situations."

Levi honestly didn't know much about animals, aside from the ones at the shelter, but he knew that was a damn good answer, and he felt a fierce flash of pride for the brunette when Brenda nodded at that answer, as well. 

"One last question, Mr Jaeger. Where do you see yourself after this job?"

"I don't really know, yet. I know that probably sounds discouraging, but from what Levi-...I mean, Mr Ackerman, said about this place, it seems like a place that I might want to work at for awhile."

"Alright, thank you, Mr Jaeger. I can't say for sure yet, as I still have two more people to interview, but you are our prime candidate for this job right now." She reached across the table to give his hand a firm shake, doing the same to Levi, before pushing herself up from the table. "Thank you for coming in today. And Mr Ackerman, its always a pleasure seeing you."

After their farewells, Brenda departed from the room to go prepare for her next interview, and once she did, Levi turned to Eren, lips curling into a small grin. "How about we go out to lunch to celebrate?"


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [This is the black dress that Eren wears>](https://www.dresslily.com/lace-sleeveless-knee-length-dress-product1590452.html?lkid=1859665&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoLSe7_CD2QIVAm5-Ch2h1g0jEAQYBCABEgLZifD_BwE)  
>     
> [These are the black heels that Eren wears](https://m.tbdress.com/product/11506436.html?c=USD&tb_from=paid_adwords_shopping&adword_mt=&adword_ct=156164961075&adword_kw=&adword_pos=1o1&adword_pl=&adword_net=g&adword_tar=&adw_id=6389302881_693153259_36221721592_aud-337571836709:pla-385339611066&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8Zfw2PGD2QIV3brACh1nPQNHEAQYASABEgJ0KPD_BwE)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, I know I am MONTHS behind with publishing, but I have SOOOOO MUUUUCH going on in my life right now. I am taking a looking temporary hiatus from my Instagram, I am currently job hunting cause I'm poor and want money, also I HAVE HAD A HELLA BAD CASE OF WRITER'S BLOCK!! I do have some ideas for the next couple chapters though, so I am going to start working on that tout suite (right away). Also, I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but I have been doing some editing on this story, going through chapter by chapter and fixing them.
> 
> Anyways, I once again apologize for being absent for so long and I will try my damnedest to not vanish for such a long period of time again.

The call Eren was expecting came the afternoon after his interview and he hurriedly jumped off the couch to get to the phone before Levi could. However, it was obvious that the raven knew who was most likely calling because there was a small smile on his face as Eren rushed over to answer the phone. "Hello?" 

"Eren, its Brenda from Forget Me Not. I was just calling to congratulate you. You got the job, dear. Come in on Monday and we'll get you started. I've got to go, but I hope you and Levi have a nice weekend."

As soon as he put the phone down, a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist and lips pressed against the nape of his neck. Eren hadn't even heard the raven get off the couch and was incredibly impressed by his boyfriend's sneaking abilities. "Guess what, handsome?"

"You got the job?" Levi's suspicions were confirmed when the brunette giggled happily and twisted himself around so that they were facing each other, those slim arms coming to drape over his shoulders. 

"I got the job, Levi!!" He let out another joyous peal of laughter as he was suddenly scooped up into the raven's arms and spun around the kitchen.

"That's wonderful news, dollface." It had been quite a while since he'd seen Eren laugh so freely and it was a sight that made Levi incredibly happily. He snuck in a couple more kisses to the brunette's cheeks, before gently setting him back down on the floor. "I'm so happy for you."

"We've got to celebrate this moment, Levi. Let's go out to dinner."

"I think that's marvelous idea." He watched in amusement as Eren joyfully skipped up the stairs and slowly followed his boyfriend up to their bedroom to, arriving just in time to hear the bathroom door slam shut. He didn't think anything of it, sure that the brunette just had to take a shit, and headed into their shared closet to change into something a little more formal. 

Dressed in black jeans and a long sleeved white button down, Levi finally stepped out of the closet, his eyes narrowing when he saw the bathroom door was still shut. Eren normally didn't bother moving into a separate room to dress, let alone take ten minutes to simply change clothes, and Levi couldn't help but wonder what the brunette was up to. "Hey, Eren, everything alright in there?" 

There was a loud clatter, almost as if something had just hit the counter, and then the brunette's embarrassed voice answered, making Levi's eyebrows rise in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Everything's great. Hey, would you mind waiting downstairs for me?"

"Oh, alright. Just yell if you need anything." Leaving the brunette to do whatever it was he was doing, he headed downstairs and collapsed on the couch, pulling out his phone to check it when it vibrated in his pocket. There was an email from Brenda, congratulating him on Eren's new job, along with an attachment of the brunette's work schedule for the next week. A sudden creak from the floorboards had Levi glancing up from his phone screen and he inhaled sharply, eyes widening in shock the moment he saw his boyfriend. "Holy shit, Eren."

The brunette had on a sleeveless black dress and matching black close-toed heels with bows on them, a shy smile on his face as he twirled around in a slow full circle. "Do you like it?" 

"Like it? I fucking love it. Come here, you." Levi wrapped his hands firmly around Eren's slim waist and jerked him forward to place a kiss on those red tinted lips. "Such a sexy little thing, aren't you? Is this what you were doing in the bathroom?"

"Yeah, I saw all this last week and immediately had to buy it. A spur of the moment decision, really."

"Well, it was a good decision." He would have continued to kiss Eren had two hands not pressed against his chest and backed him up several steps.

"Down boy. You're gonna smear my lipstick." 

"Sorry. Come on, let's go now, otherwise we'll make it out that door." 

 

~

Despite the fact that he'd been incredibly excited to start work, Eren actually had a ridiculously difficult time waking up that Monday morning and, embarrassingly enough, Levi was the one who eventually had to drag him out of bed. Stumbling over to their shared closet, Eren blindly began changing clothes, slipping into some faded blue jeans and the work shirt he'd received from the animal shelter. He must have been taking a rather long time in their room because, before he knew it, Levi was calling for him from somewhere downstairs, and he hurriedly rushed down to the first floor, finding his boyfriend making omelettes in the kitchen. "What's cooking, good looking?"

Levi momentarily set his spatula down so that he could peer at the brunette over his shoulder, an eyebrow raising at that line. "Please tell me you did not just say that?"

"Damn right I did, baby. You are not the only one with cheesy pick up lines." 

"Speaking of cheesy, sit down and eat your omelette."

"Yes, dear." He took the plate from Levi, as well as the fresh cup of coffee that'd he'd just brewed, and made his way to the counter.

He was shortly joined by Levi, once the raven had finished making a second omelette and placed the dirty pan in the sink to be cleaned later. "So are you excited for your first day of work?"

"Fuck yeah. I have been wanting to apply at one of the shelters for months, but I......well, I was busy sorting things out and then I met you."

That answer made Levi smile wistfully because he knew exactly what kind of things Eren had been sorting out before they'd met and was glad that his boyfriend was finally getting to do something he wanted. 

~

Working at the animal shelter had proved quite a challenge to Eren, having required more heavy work than he'd originally thought it would, and he spent the majority of the day bringing supplies up to the front part of the shelter to restock the shelves with.

However, it paid off when Brenda thanked him for a successful first day at the shelter and let him off work an hour earlier than his shift ended. Knowing his boyfriend wouldn't get off work for quite some time and not in the mood to wait that long, Eren gathered his stuff and managed to catch the five-thirty bus home.

By the time he finally returned home, it was nearly six and the first thing he did, upon arriving home, was put dinner, a frozen lasagna, in the oven to cook. When that was done, he headed upstairs to their master bathroom so he could get the shower running. He turned the hot water on and exited the bathroom, leaving it to heat up while he gathered some clean boxer briefs, a pair of lacy blue sleep shorts and a black tank top that read **'I'm not gay, but my dick is'**. Having everything he needed in his arms, he scampered back to the bathroom and dropped his stuff on the counter, then stripping out of his work clothes and tentatively stepping under the stream of hot water, which felt incredibly wonderful on his sore work-inexperienced muscles. 

Eren must have been standing under the water for much longer than he thought, because he hadn't even realized the shower door had been opened and, embarrassingly enough, jumped when he heard Levi's voice call out. He glanced over his shoulder and found the raven leaning against the shower door, watching him with a small smirk. Levi was stripped almost completely down, wearing nothing but a black pair of boxer briefs and Eren shamelessly let his eyes roam over that muscled frame. 

"Oh my. Who's this sexy stranger in my shower? Mind if I join?"

"I don't think my rich CEO boyfriend would approve. He's gonna be home soon and he'll get mad jealous if he catches us in here together." 

"I think I could handle him." Levi had his briefs off in a matter of seconds, and with just a few steps, he was backing Eren up against the tiled wall so he could glide his hands up the brunette's water slicked skin. "Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are? Because you are damn beautiful."

Eren could feel his cheeks flame up in embarrassment at unexpected compliment, though he should have been used to Levi's compliments by now, and leaned forward so he could playfully nip at the raven's bottom lip. "Oh, hush you."

"Make me." Before his boyfriend could get another word in edgewise, Levi swooped in and left a flurry of kisses across those already kiss-swollen lips, leisurely trailing them towards the brunette's unmarked throat.

Letting his head tip back against the slippery tiled walls, Eren sharply exhaled through barely parted lips, both at the teeth grazing over the pulse racing under his skin and at the hands that suddenly groped his ass. And as much as Eren would have enjoyed a quickie with his man in the shower, God knows he needed it, he knew the lasagna he had put in the oven earlier would finish cooking soon and he didn't plan on letting it overcook. "Levi.....my lasagna will burn."

Of course, the minute Levi planned to get all frisky with Eren _would_ be the time that they'd get interrupted, however he couldn't be all that mad, since dinner was a necessity. After one last harsh suck to the brunette's now bruised throat, he pulled away just enough so that he could stare into those wide, verdigris eyes. "Alright, but you and I have some unfinished business after dinner."


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **DISCLAIMER:** there is smut in this chapter, literally the entire first half of it, so just skip it if you don't want to read it.
> 
> Also, Levi has some new competition, though he doesn't realize it yet, and Eren is oblivious to all the flirts sent his way.

Eren managed to get up by himself the next morning, quite a bit earlier than he'd set his alarm for too, and drowsily rolled over so he could stare at his still sleeping boyfriend. Levi looked incredibly cute whenever he slept, even with the sheets now bunched up around his waist, which was just as bare as the brunette was from their sweaty activities the night before, and Eren shamefully felt his dick twitch with interest at those pale, exposed abs. 

One glimpse at his alarm clock clued him in that he'd have time for another quick round, so, being the little shit he was, he snuck his hand under the blanket and wrapped his fingers around the raven's flaccid cock, giving it several teasingly slow strokes to raise it to full hardness. Rolling back onto his right side, he fumbled through one of the drawers in his bedside table, producing a bottle of lube just long enough to pour some into his palm. After coating Levi's length with the warm gel, he finally maneuvered himself into the lap of his sleeping boyfriend and slowly slipped the head of Levi's dick into his ass. Steadying himself on his knees, he leisurely began bouncing in the raven's lap, eager to see what Levi's reaction to him would be upon waking.

Said man wasn't quite sure at what point he'd become aware of his surroundings, but Levi could now hear moans coming from above him and felt someone moving in his lap, the latter most likely the culprit of the pleasure coursing through him. Forcing his tired eyes to flicker open, the corners of his lips immediately turned up in a sleepy smirk as he watched Eren enthusiastically riding him, emerald gaze mischievously glancing up at him through thick lashes. "What a sight to wake up to."

Now that his boyfriend was awake and those glassy grey eyes were trained on him, Eren halted his movements took a moment to simply stretch, arching his back just the way Levi liked. He flicked his tongue out in a seductive way, running it along his top lip, and smirked when Levi's narrowed eyes followed the movement. "Like what you see, baby?"

"Damn right I do." He attempted to lift his arms, so he could grip Eren's hips and help him move, but two strong hands took hold of his wrists and pinned them down against the mattress. 

"I'm off limits right now, darling. So just lay back and let me do my thing."

"Shit, you know how to turn a man on right, Eren." The demanding tone only further arousing him, Levi did as he was instructed and relaxed back against the pillows, knowing the brunette wouldn't be able to keep up the pace forever. His prediction proved to be right when Eren's pace eventually began to falter and, breaking the now loose hold on his wrists, he tightly gripped his boyfriend's hips so he could roughly thrust upwards.

Having been too focused on trying to keep his quickly faltering rhythm going, the sudden movements had caught Eren by surprise and he threw his head back, outright keening, when a jolt of pleasure shot right through him, the raven managing to successfully hit his prostate on the first try. "Hahh, f-fuck, Levi....."

"Sexy little shit, aren't you?" Levi punctuated each word with a sharp thrust up, knowing exactly what it took to get his boyfriend all wound up. "Waking up early and putting on such a lovely show for me."

"I wanted to s-surprise you." He rested his clammy palms flat against that firm chest, steadying himself as another well aimed thrust was delivered right to his prostate.

"And you did. Such a good boy, _aren't you_ , Eren?"

It was clear that the raven was expecting a response and, too blissed out to care how embarrassing he sounded, Eren came all over Levi's chest as he cried out his next words, a dark blush painting his sweaty face. "I _am_ a good boy."

"Yes, you are, baby." One last thrust into the tightness clenching around him had Levi coming, as well, and he pressed a weary kiss to Eren's damp fringe, pulling the brunette with him as he slumped back against the bed. "Good morning to you, too, by the way."

Eren let out a breathless giggle in return, allowing his eyes to flit shut, as he comfortably lay against his boyfriend's messy chest and attempted to steady his heavy panting.

"Eren, as much as I enjoyed that, I need a shower and so do you. I can only imagine how Brenda will react if you show up to work looking fucked out."

~

Apparently, his post-sex glow still hadn't faded by the time Levi dropped him off at work, because Brenda paused him on his way to clock in, apparently noticing something was different and wondering what exactly it. He merely shrugged his shoulders in confusion, not willing to share the reason for his morning afterglow, and hurried to the employee's lounge to put his stuff away. 

As he was leaving the lounge, it seemed someone else was planning on entering and Eren let out a cry of surprise as someone slammed right into him, nearly knocking him off his feet. He might have fallen on his ass, as well, had an arm not suddenly wrapped around his waist and steadied him. Eren tilted his head back to examine his rescuer and was met with copper eyes, platinum blond hair, and a smile that was almost as charming as Levi's. 

"Goodness, you're literally falling for me, aren't you?"

Eren, being the naturally amicable person he was and not thinking anything of it, simply giggled at the corny joke, used to hearing Levi say things like that all the time. "Thanks for the save."

"Yeah, glad I was able to keep a cute ass like yours from falling on the floor. The name's Liam."

"I'm Eren." 

"Well, Eren, maybe you'd like to get dinner with me after work.....?"

"Oh shit, Liam. I'm so sorry, but I can't." He felt bad for saying no to such a friendly guy, but he knew that if he accepted Liam's invitation, then he'd be no better than his cheating ex. Not to mention that he had just met the blond and knew next to nothing about him at the moment. 

"That's alright. Don't worry your pretty little head over it. Look, I'm on break right now, but we can talk more later."

Knowing that Liam wasn't bothered by the fact that'd he'd said no, made him feel a thousand times better and he gave the blond a friendly smile as he headed out the door. "I'll see you later, Liam."

It was later in the afternoon, when he was restocking shelves, that he had his next run in with Liam. He was balancing on one of the shelter's shaky ladders, attempting to stock the cat food on the top shelves, and happened to lose his footing. He toppled backward off the ladder, desperately trying to grab the sides to slow his fall, and had the breath knocked out of him as he fell into a strong pair of arms. "Holy shit. That's twice today, you've saved my ass."

"Rescuing a damsel in distress is all in day's work, cutie." He carefully lowered Eren to the floor and gently nudged the brunette in the back, trying to get him to step away from the ladder. "Since ladders have proven to be your enemy, head in back to the lounge and clock out, while I finish up here for you."

"Thank you, Liam. I really appreciate it." As much as Eren hated relying on other people to do his job for him, the blond was completely right about the ladder thing and Eren really didn't want to risk falling off of it again. Leaving Liam to finish what little stocking remained, Eren returned to the lounge so he could clock out and gather his belongings. He bid both Liam and Brenda a good evening on his way out and was immensely pleased to find Levi waiting out front for him when he exited the shelter, immediately leaning down to plant a wet smooch on the raven's lips. "Why hello there, Mr Ackerman."


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: mentions of sexual assault
> 
> I don't know how I feel about this chapter or if I'm even going to keep it. I have plans to lead this up to others and I felt like Liam would be the obsessive type, but I kept going back and rewriting it.

It had been almost a week since their first encounters and, during that short amount of time, Liam's infatuation with him had only grown into a dangerous obsession. While Eren had originally taken it as being friendly, he now couldn't deny that the blond was actively flirting with him and, despite how guilty he knew it'd make him, he realized he was going to have to do something about it.

He had spent the majority of that morning attempting to figure out a courteous way to turn him away, not wanting to hurt Liam's feelings, and hadn't even heard his coworker approaching, until the blond was standing right behind him. "What do you want, Liam?"

"I was thinking you and I could go out for dinner tonight, cutie pie."

"No, I've already told you I can't. I have a boyfriend, okay?"

It was obvious Liam had been confident that he'd get a yes and the next words out of his mouth made Eren's guilt over this entire situation a thousand times stronger. "I can't believe this. I have been nothing but friendly to you since you've arrived and this is what I get in return?"

"That's not fair. I've been friendly too."

"I know. Always giggling and flirting with me, you were just leading me on, weren't you?"

Eren honestly hadn't been trying to lead his coworker on but, being as friendly as he always was with everyone, he could see how Liam might have thought differently. "I swear that wasn't my intention and I'm sorry if you thought it was. Are we good now?"

"If you go out to dinner with me, we will be. Come on, just one date will make me happy, Eren."

"Fine. I'll go to dinner with you once, but _that's_ it." Having experienced it several times in his last relationship with Jean, he should have seen the signs of abuse, the manipulation and guilt tripping, but he was one of those people who was naive enough to see the good in everyone. And he'd unknowingly just secured the final nail in his coffin by giving into the blond's unhealthy desires.

"I knew you wouldn't let me down."

After that encounter, much to his own disappointment, Eren remained distracted with wandering thoughts for the majority of the day, only managing to snap out of it as his shift came to an end. He stood outside the shelter, waiting for Liam to finish up with the stocking, he pulled out his phone so he could send a quick text to his still working boyfriend.

**E: Don't worry about picking me up after work. I'm going to have dinner with one of my friends.**

**L: Alright, have fun and stay safe, baby.**

The lie left a bitter ache in the pit of Eren's stomach and the fact that Levi had easily bought it, without question, made him feel a thousand times worse because the raven didn't even suspect a single thing was wrong. He slipped his phone back into the pocket of his jeans when the doors to the shelter opened and managed to put on a fake smile as Liam finally walked out. 

Much to Eren's displeasure, the blond took them all the way out to the next town for dinner and they ended up at an extravagant Italian restaurant, the type of restaurant Levi would have brought him to. He excused himself as a waiter greeted them and hurried off to the bathroom, immediately locking himself in a stall so he could attempt to settle his high strung nerves.

By the time he returned to their table, their drinks had been served and, the minute he sat down, Eren took a huge gulp of his wine, hoping it would take the edge off. The wine had an unfamiliar taste and Eren wasn't sure if that's how wine tasted or if the restaurant just had a bad bottle of wine. 

It was shortly after they'd both finished dessert that the room had begun wildly spinning and, suddenly feeling on the brink of passing out, Eren blindly reached out for something to hold on to. He'd unwittingly latched onto Liam's arm and immediately regretted it when the blond, thinking it had been a come on, wrapped his arm firmly around Eren's waist.

"Woah, careful, babe. You don't wanna hurt yourself. Come on."

He let Liam lead him back out to the parking lot and weakly collapsed against the back seat when the door was opened for him. Despite the warning bells going off in his foggy mind, reminding him that he was most likely drugged and wasn't going to be dropped off at Levi's, he closed his eyes so he could rest for a moment.

~

Eren's eyes tiredly fluttered open and he immediately began to panic as he realized several things at once: he was alone in a hotel room, he'd been completely stripped of his clothes, was covered in dried bodily fluids, and he couldn't remember how he'd ended up in the hotel room. The clock on the bedside table revealed that it was just a little after midnight and he winced as he realized he was supposed to have been home almost two hours ago. 

Despite the dried cum on his chest and stomach, his hips didn't ache, which meant he could thankfully rule out the possibility of having been raped. As he shakily climbed out from under the sheets, he noticed his clothes, piled on the cushion of one of the nearby chairs, and he rushed to find a note sitting on top of them, a note that had most definitely been left by Liam.

**Hey there, baby.**

**I had a really great time with you tonight and I want you to know that I took tons of pictures to remember the things we did. I know you'd hate for them to accidentally leak out, especially to your boyfriend, so I suggest you keep this night to yourself.**

**Love, Liam.**

The letter fluttering out of his finger tips, Eren dropped to the floor as it finally sank in that he'd been drugged and sexually assaulted, not only that but now there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He let out a choked sob and clumsily managed to slip back into his clothes, crumpling the note up and tossing it across the room. Stuffing the rest of his belongings into his pockets, he stumbled down to the empty lobby of the hotel and out the front doors, finally calling a taxi to bring him back home.

~

Levi hadn't remembered falling asleep, having been waiting for Eren to come home, and was jerked awake by the sound of their bedroom door opening, sluggishly rolling onto his back so he could greet the brunette. "Did you have a good time, darling?"

The horrible guilt that Eren had felt earlier, when he'd first lied to Levi, returned much stronger than before and, feeling shameful that he was still being dishonest with his boyfriend, merely let out a quiet grunt as he made his way to the bathroom.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Despite how late it was and how exhausted Levi was, the brunette normally would have been bursting with excitement to tell him everything that had happened and the unfamiliar silence that greeted him worried Levi. 

"Of course. I'm just tired and want to take a bath. Go back to sleep, babe."

Under other circumstances, Levi would have gladly offered to lend some assistance, however Eren didn't seem to be in the mood for company, so he sleepily blew his boyfriend a kiss and tugged the covers back over his body.

Eren triple checked the bathroom door to make sure it was locked, not in the mood for any late night chats with his boyfriend, before getting to work in his hot bath. As the tub slowly filled with warm water, Eren finally allowed his mind to wander over the horrific events of the last few hours. He was almost positive that Liam had drugged his wine with something and it terrified him as he realized he couldn't remember anything from that point on. 

He felt so stupid for trusting Liam, considering how obsessed his coworker had been with him since the beginning, and knew he probably should have seen the signs of something dangerous approaching. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to go back to work the next day and face the man, knowing it was most likely going to result in something worse.

Eren pulled himself out of his own toxic mind long enough to lower himself into the scented bath water and, long past being pushed to his breaking point, his pent up tears began to overflow. He silently cried for every unfortunate thing that had happened to him that week, desperately wishing that he had the courage to stand up for himself or at least talk it over with his raven haired boyfriend.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Levi will most likely hear the truth in the next chapter, cause I am **terrible** at dragging these things out for too long, so look forward to that.
> 
> In other news, I've been talking to a Navy recruiter, as well as filling out paperwork, and tomorrow I go downtown to get my physical exam done, so it maybe two or three days before the next chapter gets posted.

As morning rolled around, Eren had mostly regained his memories from the previous night at the hotel and, feeling incredibly nauseous at the repulsive memories overwhelming him, rushed to the bathroom to avoid puking in the bed. He could now vividly remember weakly fighting as Liam masturbated over him and snapped pictures of the mess left on his drugged body, the frightening memory enough to make Eren dry heave. 

Having felt Eren practically fly from their bed and panicking over what might possibly be wrong, so early in the morning, Levi had quickly followed him and immediately knelt down so he could press his wrist against Eren's forehead, checking for any signs of illness. "How are you feeling, baby?"

"Like shit."

"Well, you don't seem to have a temperature, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. I'm gonna call Brenda and tell her you can't come in today."

Since he'd crawled into bed the previous night, Eren had been dreading going into work the next morning and, letting out a relieved sigh, it instantly felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. "You'd do that for me, Levi?"

"Of course, sweetheart. Here, let's get you back to bed." 

Eren let himself be scooped up off the cold tiled floors and carried back to their bed, where he was tucked underneath the blankets by gentle hands. It constantly amazed him how the raven could be so serious around other people, yet contrarily compassionate towards him and Eren suddenly felt compelled to voice his thoughts. "Levi, you know I love you, right?"

"Of course I do, baby, and I love you. Now, just wait here and I'll be right back." After a smooch to the his boyfriend's forehead, Levi left the room and returned several long moments later, with a tray of freshly made french toast and a steaming cup of coffee, made just the way Eren liked. "Eat up, sweetheart."

Feeling a hundred times better than he had been moments ago, Eren gratefully took the tray and began to munch on his breakfast, watching with extreme interest as Levi began stripping out of his pajamas to get ready for work. "Woo, yeah. Take it off."

"Be quiet and eat your breakfast, you."

"Wait, stand right there for a minute, maybe stretch a little." Setting his tray aside, Eren snatched his phone off his bedside table and swiped his camera open, quickly snapping a couple pictures of his naked, flexing boyfriend. "Mmm, just like that, baby."

"Are you done now?" He got a nod from his giggling boyfriend and attempted to ignore the flirty whistles Eren sent him at the sight of his bare ass, as he headed to their closet to change into one of his business suits. "You're such a little shit, you know that?"

"But I'm your little shit." Knowing their shared time was quickly coming to an end, Eren blew the raven a kiss when he reappeared out of their closet, the short man looking handsome as ever in a sharp black suit, and grinned as Levi crossed the room to steal a smooch from him. "Have a good day at work, baby."

"Thanks to you, I will. Just take it easy, okay? And I'll see you when I get home."

~

Lying around the house for several hours with nothing to do had not been as satisfying as Eren had originally expected and he eventually found himself heading upstairs to change his clothes, desperately craving an expertly made frappuccino. It was an incredibly short drive to his favorite coffee shop and, in just ten minutes, he found himself standing in line. 

"Long time, no see, Jaeger." 

That wonderfully familiar voice capturing his attention, Eren flashed a bright smile at the blonde haired girl behind the counter, not having seen Annie in several weeks, and quickly relayed his order to her so they could chat more at the pickup counter. "How're you and Mikasa doing?"

"Wonderful, we're celebrating our six month anniversary this weekend." 

"That's so fucking romantic." He'd originally introduced his sister to the blonde, when he'd been in need of a major coffee fix, and the two girls had instantly taken a liking to each other, officially ending up together just a month later. No matter how many times he saw them, their relationship always ran so smoothly and it was everything Eren strived for with Levi, despite the numerous incidents he and the raven had recently had. "Do you have any special plans?"

"I was going to buy some flowers for her and maybe cook her dinner, serve it under candle light"

"Ooh, candles would be a nice touch. And what kind of flowers are you gonna buy?" Eren always loved getting flowers, not for the sake of receiving a gift, but because he knew all flowers held a different meaning and he'd long since learned that Annie was one of the few people who also knew and cherished that. 

"I'm thinking of getting her jasmines. They represent elegance and grace-"

"Which totally suits Mikasa. I already know she'll love them. And then she'll probably gush over them to me. 'Oh, Eren. You'll never believe it. Annie was so romantic and got me these gorgeous, meaningful flowers'."

Annie let out a rare, lilting laugh at the brunette's rather accurate imitation of her girlfriend and, while trying to contain her laughter and avoid spilling Eren's drink, handed him his now ready frappuccino. "You'll have to tell me when she texts you about it."

"As long as you tell me what she does for you."

"Of course, as if I'd really forget. Now take your drink and grab a table before I get in trouble for socializing."

Leaving the blonde to continue her shift behind the counter, he made his way to the front of the restaurant and took a seat at one of the tables by the door, pulling his phone out so he could catch any missed texts, however it seemed everyone was away at work or off doing their own things, so Eren merely set his phone back down on the table.

"Hey. You're Eren, right?" 

Eren looked up with a mouth full of coffee, having just taken a sip, and into the familiar face of a freckled brunette, though he couldn't place where they might have met before. "Yeah, and you are?"

"I'm Marco Bodt......Jean's other ex." He'd expected a hateful or angered response from Eren, considering the amount of shit that the brunette had gone through, but all he got in return was a sad, knowing smile. "Its so nice to finally meet you in person. Mikasa has told me so much about you."

"Wait, you know Mikasa?"

"Yeah, after her argument with Jean and me breaking up with him, we actually became really great friends." Marco noticed Eren's sour mood and warily sat down next to the other brunette, hoping he could figure out a way to improve the other brunette's mood. "Is everything alright, Eren?"

"Honestly, no. But I'd rather not talk about it here in public."

"We can talk in my car if you want."

"You'd really do that for me?" Eren was wary of getting into another guy's car after what had happened with Liam the previous night, however he knew there was nothing to worry about if Mikasa was friends with the freckled brunette. After he'd texted a farewell to his blond friend, he grabbed his coffee cup and followed Marco outside to his car, uneasily lowering himself into the passenger seat. 

"So what's wrong, Eren? Are you and Levi having problems?"

"No, it has nothing to do with him. There's this guy I work with and he forced me to go out to dinner with him last night. But that's not even the worst part. He drugged my wine, then, when I was passed out, he took me to a hotel and took nude pictures of me, as well as......" A frightened look flashed across that freckled face and Eren knew exactly what question was going to come from his mouth next.

"Oh my gosh, he didn't rape you, did he?"

"No, but I think he might have molested me or something. There was cum covering me and I'm pretty sure some of it was his."

"Eren, that's horrible. Have you talked to Levi about it?"

"NO." Eren hadn't meant to raise his voice at the brunette, but he was scared at the mere _thought_ of telling anybody what had happened to him, let alone actually speaking it out loud. "And you can't say anything to anyone."

"Why not? Eren, you shouldn't keep this secret. You should at least talk to your boyfriend."

"I can't. Liam swore he'd leak those nudes of me if I told anyone. And that included Levi."

Marco could now see why Eren had kept such a terrible incident to himself, however, having taken a psychiatry class, Marco knew holding stressful secrets in like that would only make things worse in the long run. "I still think you should tell Levi. That asshole will never know and you'll feel much better once you get it off your chest."

He knew that Marco was absolutely right, that he should say something before too many more days passed and his assault became irrelevant, but he didn't know if he had the courage to speak up about the vile things that Liam had done to him. "I know. I just need a little more time and then I'll tell him."


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE
> 
> Also, Liam finally gets what he deserves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some extra time and managed to finish chapter 30, so THIS will probably be the last chapter that gets published before I leave.

"You should come over to my house for dinner tonight, Eren." 

"No, Liam." Since Eren had returned to work, that was the third time Liam had used that as blackmail and Eren was determined to not give in this time. He knew that if he agreed to Liam's demands and went over to the blond's apartment, there was an incredibly high chance of him getting raped. He knew that he should have ended things several weeks ago when Liam had first asked him out and decided it was time to finally put a stop to the blond's shit.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" 

"You fucking heard me. I said no."

"I can always tell your boyfriend about those pictures of you." 

"You know what? I think _I'm_ gonna tell him instead. And then my CEO boyfriend can tell Brenda to fire your ass." Eren had had enough of the blond's torment and began stomping back to the lounge, fully intending to call Levi and explain what had happened the last couple of weeks. However, he'd only managed to get a few feet away, before a hand roughly grabbed his wrist and yanked him back, viciously slamming him up against one of the shelves.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your fucking mouth shut, got it? After all, I'd hate to see something happen to this pretty little face of yours."

Eren flinched as Liam's fingers brushed against his face, shockingly gentle despite the vicious tone, and, as soon as the blond released him, rushed outside to deal with his overwhelming and conflicting emotions. His best efforts were in vain though, as he found that he was unable to calm himself and scrambled to pull his phone out, hastily dialling Levi's number in hopes that the raven would be able to stave off his uneasiness.

"Eren, baby, what's up?"

"Levi....h-help, please-" He knew he should have attempted to explain the situation, to avoid giving his boyfriend a heart attack, however he could barely manage to get those three simple words out without crying. 

"Shit, what's wrong? Eren?" If Levi's tone of voice was anything to go by, it was obvious the raven's concern for him only skyrocketed when he caught the sound of labored breathing, an immediate sign that Eren was close to having a breakdown. "Listen to me, okay? Eren, are you listening?"

Eren nodded at first, until he remembered that he was having a conversation over the phone and let out a small murmur of affirmation, however the noise was enough to please Levi and the raven continued on giving firm directions.

"I want you to take a deep breath and, after three seconds, release it."

Just hearing his boyfriend's gentle voice was soothing to Eren and, wanting to hear more of that silky voice, did as he had been instructed, slowly exhaling on a shaky sigh. Within the span of a few minutes, he was feeling much better and his shaking had completely stopped, however, Levi still didn't seem to be satisfied and insisted on picking him up from work. Despite the fact that he was now composed, Eren was worried how things might go when Levi finally arrived and, without even realizing it, worriedly began pacing around on the pavement, his concerns only doubling when Levi's car finally turned the corner and came to a stop at the curb. 

"Look at me. You don't seem to be hurt. Are you alright now? What happened, Eren?"

"Well, I......" From the corner of his eye, Eren could see Liam lingering near the front window, clearly waiting to see what would be said between them, and he hurriedly dragged his boyfriend back to the car, not in the mood to deal with the blond's nosiness. "I'll tell you in the car."

It was only when the raven had finally began driving that Eren finally spoke to him and, as Marco's words replayed through his mind, Eren took a deep breath, trying to will himself not to lose his courage to finally speak out about what had happened. "Remember that Monday when I went to dinner with a friend? It turns out, he was no friend of mine. He drugged my wine and took me to a hotel room, where he.....he fucking molested me."

Out of all the possible worst case scenarios he had pictured in his mind, Levi would have never, in a million years, imagined that one coming true and it felt like a vicious punch to his gut. As the dreadful news sunk in and shock momentarily consumed him, the truck actually swerved off the road, nearly hitting a black minivan in the next lane over. Levi quickly regained control and slammed on the brakes, pulling into a nearby parking lot to avoid any other mishaps while he and the brunette talked things over. "Eren, please, _please_ tell me you went to the police?"

"I didn't....I know it was stupid of me and I know I should have, Levi, but Liam swore he'd leak the pictures he took if I said anything."

"That bastard took pictures?" There were so many things that Levi wanted to do in that moment, starting with beating the living shit out of the sick fuck who had caused Eren so much grief. It was only when the brunette gently gripped his wrist, that Levi realized he'd been clenching his fists tightly and immediately relaxed them so that he could take Eren's hands in his own. "Don't apologize, Eren. You have nothing to be sorry for. It's no wonder you've looked so upset the past few days; I should have known something serious was wrong."

"So.....what now?" He knew his boyfriend was going to want to take some kind of action, whether it be pressing charges or beating the crap out of the blond, however Eren didn't really know if there was any point in doing anything since the incident had happened so long ago.

"We need to go to the police-"

"No, Levi. Look, it happened and I can't change that, but I don't want to deal with this anymore, okay? Just talk to Brenda and fire him."

Levi so desperately wanted to change Eren's mind, angered by the fact that someone had done something so horrible and managed to get away with it, however he knew his brunette boyfriend would protest him every step of the way, so he merely nodded and leaned closer to kiss Eren's temple. "If that's really what you want."

~

Eren was once more trapped in the hotel bed, as naked as he had been before, with Liam sitting above him, but this time he was fully conscious and frightfully aware of everything going on between them. He was unable to turn his terrified gaze away as Liam began undressing on top of him, clearly intent on taking things all the way this time. "No, Liam. Please, don't."

"Why are you crying, baby? You know you want this."

Despite the fact that he knew what was coming, he still let out a scream as Liam roughly entered him and unsuccessfully attempted to shove the blond off of him, wishing he could be anywhere else at the moment as pain flashed through his lower body with every thrust of the blond's hips. He had never thought anything could be so excruciating and was almost positive that Liam was going to end up breaking him beyond a healing point. Even when he'd been with Jean, his ex had always made sure he was well prepared, not wanting to injure him any more than their rough fucks would.

Eren's head sluggishly tipped to the side in defeat, dismally accepting his horrid fate, and his breath caught in his throat as he caught a pair of grey eyes watching them from the doorway, anger, betrayal and disgust flashing through them all at once. He wanted nothing more than to leap out of the bed and sprint to the raven's side, wanting to assure him it wasn't what it looked like, however he found that he was unable to move and simply had to endure the humiliating pain as Levi watched from the doorway.

~

Eren was startled awake by the sound of someone calling his name and jolted up into a sitting position, unable to focus for several seconds with remnants of his horrid dream still running through his mind. He finally managed to concentrate on everything outside of his own mind and found the room bathed in a soft, warm glow from the bedside lamp, which illuminated the unease darkening Levi's grey eyes, as the concerned raven knelt over him. 

"What the hell were you dreaming about, Eren? You were crying and thrashing about in your sleep."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I just......I thought I was back in that hotel room with Liam. Only this time, he-......" Despite the fact that he was fully awake, his own unfinished sentence completely terrified him and he trembled violently under the covers, a soft gasp leaving his dry lips. 

"You don't need to apologize, love. I'm glad you woke me." Levi had a pretty good idea what his boyfriend had dreamt about and it sickened him to his stomach to think that the brunette was still worrying about that night. He knew that there was little chance of anything actually being done, since it'd happened nearly two weeks before, however that didn't mean he could help his boyfriend try to move past it. Without any warning, he gently shoved Eren back against the pillows and moved closer, so he could tug the brunette's boxers down with careful hands. 

"Levi?"

Said man ignored that questioning tone and the confused puppy eyes staring up at him, and instead leaned down so that he could steal a slow, sweet kiss from those trembling pink lips. "Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me, Eren?"

Eren knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Levi had never and would never do anything to intentionally betray his trust and, keeping that in mind as he relaxed back against the pillows, timidly shook his head. "I trust you with my life, Levi. You know that, right?"

"I do know that and I'm honored. Now, just relax, baby, and I'll help you forget about everything."

~

Levi stood outside the pet shelter and tried to calm his simmering rage as he contemplated what he was going to do when he walked through those doors. Making sure no one was paying attention to him as he walked in, he headed straight to the employee lounge in the back, planning to snatch Liam's phone first, so he could confiscate those pictures of Eren. 

He was immensely pleased to find it sitting unguarded in one of the lockers and, with the blond's phone tucked safely away in his pockets, made his was back to the front, blood furiously boiling when he spotted his boyfriend's assailant. Completely losing all reason, he stormed over and grabbed Liam by the collar, viciously shoving him to the floor. "Hey, asshole. You like sexually assaulting other people's boyfriends?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about...." Despite what he'd said, his words held no conviction and there was an obvious glint of fear in those blue eyes, a sure sign that he was lying straight through his teeth. 

"Like hell you don't." Completely enraged at the fact that Liam clearly thought he was gullible enough to believe the lie, Levi fought against the ever so tempting urge to beat the shit out of the coward under him, knowing there were other ways of ruining the man's life, and, grabbing him by the collar of his work shirt, Levi dragged him all the way to Brenda's office. She practically jumped out of her seat in fright when Levi burst through and tossed Liam to the floor in front of her desk, her eyes widening as she attempted to piece together just what was going on between the two. "Levi, what's wrong? And why's Liam on the floor? Is there something I should know about?"

"There is actually. As for you, sit the fuck down and tell Brenda what you did to my boyfriend." 

"Liam, what is he talking about? Did you do something Eren?"

When Liam didn't respond or even move from where he sat slumped on the floor, Levi stepped forward and slammed his palms loudly against the desk, smirking with a sick sense of satisfaction as the blond flinched and finally got to his feet, quickly taking a seat to avoid an physical altercations with the terrifying raven. "Two weeks ago, this perverted bastard drugged my boyfriend and molested him in a hotel room."

Brenda looked equal parts nauseated and enraged, and Levi swore she looked like she was going to throw something at the blond subordinate, which would have been quite interesting, since the woman was normally quite passive during all the times that they had worked together. "Liam, when we are done here, you are going to go clear out your locker. From this day forward, you no longer work here, and if I see you set one foot inside this shelter, I will call the police. Now get the hell out of my office."


	31. Another stupid author's note

So I know a while ago I said I was going to start fanfic writing again and I have been getting several new ideas, but can't seem to write them down into an actual story. 

As for this fanfic, I have a chapter that I want to post cause its almost done, but its pretty angsty and I wanted to write a chapter that was a little lighter before posting it, but found that I haven't been able to due to a severe, severe case of writers block. You guys wouldn't mind a darker chapter, would you? Even if the last couple ones have been angsty. Its up to you guys.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but, like I said, I've been pretty busy, as well as pissed cause the shitty WiFi here keeps going out. But anyways, I just graduated from my first school and am already starting my second one on Tuesday. So as celebration, have this angsty chapter xD

As his eyes weakly fluttered open, pain came back full force and Eren winced as he pushed himself into a sitting position, taking a moment to glance around the cold, dark alley he had been laying in. Figuring he'd better move before his assailant returned, he struggled to his feet and, with still shaking legs, began trudging back towards the street, taking care to step over the spilled Chinese food that he'd been planning to bring home for him and Levi. He ended up rounding the corner just as someone else was passing by and bit back a cry of pain as two hands grabbed his shoulders to steady him, those same hands waving in front of his face a moment later and snapping him out of a daze he hadn't even realized he'd been in.

"Shit, ya probably got a concussion. Just relax, I've got ya." He wrapped one arm firmly around Eren's waist and took one of those slim own around his neck, helping the injured brunette towards a sleek black car at the curbside. "Got a name, kid?"

"Eren.....Jaeger."

"Alright, Eren. I'm gonna take ya to the hospital."

"Trost District......"

"Ya sure about that? I know a much closer one."

"No, please......" Eren was barely conscious enough to form coherent sentences and knew he wouldn't be able to fully explain that the reason he wanted to go to the district hospital was because his father worked there. "District....hospital."

"Alrighty then. Just hold tight."

Eren must have blacked out again on the ride over because when his eyes next opened, the same man was helping him out of the car and through the doors of the district hospital, where he immediately murmured out a garbled greeting to get the attention of the blonde woman at the front desk.

"OH MY GOODNESS." She hurried over to them and, giving the man a wary look, she took the brunette's beaten up face in her hands to examine. "Eren, sweetheart, what happened to you?"

"Dina.....get dad."

"Of course. Sir, please wait here with him." They didn't have to wait very long, because, just several minutes after she left through a set of double doors at the end of the hall, Grisha burst through them with a wheelchair for Eren to sit in.

The man's eyes widened in shock the minute he saw his abused son and, immediately handing his clipboard off to one of the other nurses, rushed over so he could gauge just how bad the damage was. "Dina, go get some morphine and antiseptic solution. I'm going to take him to one of the urgent care rooms and get him situated."

"Of course. I'll grab an eye pack for his swelling while I'm at it. Just take it easy until then, sweetheart."

As the blonde nurse hurried off to get the supplies needed, Grisha helped ease Eren into the wheelchair, before realizing that a certain raven haired man was missing from his son's side. "Look at me. Eren, son, where's Levi?" 

A quick search of his pockets had Eren panicking as he realized he no longer had his phone with him, which meant Levi had no way of knowing where he was, and he shakily gripped his father's arm in a weak grasp as tears began welling up in his eyes. "No, my phone. Dad, I can't find my phone!"

"Relax, it'll be okay. As soon as I've taken your vitals, I will go call Levi. Just cooperate with me, alright?" 

~

"Hey, shrimp. How's my favorite nephew doin?" 

"Fuck you, Kenny. I'm your only nephew. And right now isn't really a good time." His boyfriend had left to retrieve their dinner nearly an hour ago and, with the brunette not answering his phone, Levi's concern was now reaching a dangerously high level.

"Why's that? You busy worryin about Eren?" There was silence on the other end of the line and Kenny couldn't help but smirk, almost able to hear the wheels of suspicion turning in his nephew's mind, as he tried to figure out just how his uncle knew about the brunette. Still waiting for his nephew to say something, he glanced over his shoulder and into the hospital room behind him, turning his attention back to the phone when he saw Eren was now resting comfortably in the hospital room. 

"How the fuck do you know about him?"

"Calm down, shrimp. I just dropped him off at the district hospital. Some fucker was tryin to kill him." As soon as those last four words left his mouth, the line on the other end flat lined into a monotonous dial tone as the raven hung up, no doubt in a rush to get to Eren's location as soon as possible. Slipping his phone back into his pocket, Kenny took a seat in one of the chairs in Eren's hospital room, positive that his nephew was going to find a way to be here in just a matter of minutes.

His guess proved to be right when the raven showed up in the doorway, not even fifteen minutes later, eyes wide and jaw dropped in shock. "Holy fucking shit."

Having been drawn out of the medicated daze he'd fallen into, Eren's head snapped up at the sound of Levi's frantic voice and he locked eyes, or at least the one that wasn't swollen, with his boyfriend's worried grey ones. "Levi...."

Completely ignoring his uncle, the raven crossed the room in just a couple steps and carefully took Eren's face in his hand so he could assess the damage that had been done to his pretty boy. There was an arced cut running through Eren's right eyebrow, and it stopped just above his eyelid, which was swollen almost completely shut. With exception of a bruised cheek and a split bottom lip, the rest of Eren's face seemed undamaged, however the same could not be said about the rest of him; Levi could see dark fingerprints circling the brunette's throat and two bite marks on one of those slim arms.

"Eren, what happened? Who the fuck did this to you? And don't you _dare_ say no one."

~

Eren shivered in the chilly October air, as he hurried down the cracked sidewalk with his and Levi's takeout dinner; they'd both been too lazy to cook, so he had volunteered to go get them some Chinese food from his favorite restaurant just down the street. He was now on his way back, but didn't manage to get far, letting out a frightened shriek and dropping their bag of food on the pavement, as he was viciously yanked into the restaurant's alley. Yanking his chin out of his assailant's hand, he tilted his head up to identify the man towering over him and his eyes widened in terrified shock as he recognized the furious face just inches away from his own. "Liam....."

"Hey there, Eren babe."

"What do you want?"

"I warned you to keep your pretty little mouth shut. But you didn't listen, did you? You never were good at that." It was obvious the blond was completely drunk and Eren let out another frightened scream as a bottle was smashed against the wall, shattering dangerously close enough to his face to cut him.

"LET GO OF ME!" Eren roughly planted one of his hands against Liam's face trying to shove him off or at least back him up a little, and let out shrill scream as the blond's teeth viciously bit into his palm, the pressure of those teeth only momentarily vanishing just to bite down twice as hard on his wrist.

"You know, I'm glad I never got to go out with you." Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he roughly shoved Eren backwards and, when the brunette collapsed in a heap on the ground, straddled his hips, tightly wrapping his fingers around that slim throat. "You're seem like such a worthless bitch. I bet nobody would even care if you died."

Eren's lungs were screaming at him to get some oxygen into his system and, for once, he was scared that he might actually die, however an unfamiliar voice shouted something and the heavy weight on his hips had vanished, signifying the blond must have fled to avoid being identified by anyone. Realizing he finally had a chance to escape and make it to safety, Eren concentrated on the world around him as best as he could and forced himself to start trudging forward. 

~

While his boyfriend had been relaying his story, Levi had began furiously pacing the tiled floors, thinking of all the ways he could go about killing Liam. "I knew it, I fucking knew it. I swear to god, I'm going to find that bastard and snap his fucking neck."

"Levi, no! That's exactly why I didn't want to say anything. I knew you'd act like this. I....I just want you by my side right now, _please_?"

No matter how much he wanted to kill the piece of shit who had hurt his beloved Eren, he couldn't ignore that distressed plea and obediently took a seat on the bed beside the injured brunette, his temper only barely calming when the brunette's bandaged hand took hold of his own. "Of course. I'll never leave you, Eren."

"Thank you, baby. And thanks for coming when dad called."

"Grisha didn't call me. Kenny did." 

Assuming the stranger who had rescued him was Kenny, Eren turned his attention back to the older man watching them, eyes narrowing curiously as he tried to figure out how exactly they were related. "So you two know each other?"

"Of course I know him. This asshole is my uncle."

"You should be a little more grateful, shrimp. This asshole just rescued your pretty little boyfriend from death."

At the mention of Eren, his embrace around the brunette tightened slightly and he rested his cheek on those soft brown locks, taking a deep breath to quell the fear still simmering in him. "Thank you, Kenny. I really do appreciate it. More than you know."

Before anyone else could say anything, there was a soft knock on then door and, carefully pushing the door open, Grisha entered the room, giving Levi a tight hug as soon as he was close enough. "Thank God, you are here, Levi. I know what you're going to ask, don't say a word. He's going to be just fine, however the bite wounds on his arm are infected, so he will need to stay in hospital for a couple of days."

The look of bitter disappointment that flashed across the brunette's injured face had Levi even more heartbroken and he gave his boyfriend's hand a firm squeeze to remind him that he wasn't leaving his side anytime soon. 

"I think I may have some news that will cheer you up, son. Liam just checked into the hospital about 15 minutes ago and is being taken care of in the ER, until the police arrive."


End file.
